


Something

by secooper87



Series: Adventures of a Line Hopper [11]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Angst and Humor, F/M, Humor, Self-Destruction, Time Travel, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-11
Updated: 2012-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-14 01:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 81,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/509814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secooper87/pseuds/secooper87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SEQUEL to "Nothing".  When Buffy's launched into the future, she discovers that everything that's happened to her -- from the Trio of Hell to the Initiative -- is caused by the events unfolding centuries in the future.  Buffy and the Doctor fight for their lives, as the Daleks' trap closes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Why, yes, I do go completely AU for the Buffyverse after the end of the TV series. How very astute of you to notice! But, in my own defense, I doubt that Joss Whedon ever really considered what effect the 31st century solar flares would have on the vampire population.

Julie Parsoner had only been working for UNIT for a week before it happened. The air seemed to jerk around her, the world spun, her stomach lurched, and suddenly...

Julie blinked.

She was somewhere else, entirely. A dull, black metal spaceship, surrounded by the whirr of incredibly sophisticated machinery. A glimpse of stars, outer space, and nebula dust out the nearby window.

"TEMPORAL TELEPORT SUCCESSFUL!" a metallic voice shouted.

Julie's heart skipped a beat. She turned, very slowly, dreading what she'd see next. Because she remembered what these things were, and what they could do.

"Daleks," she breathed.

"CORRECT," one of the Daleks said, as a swarm of them approached her.

"Okay," said Julie, mind racing for something she could do or some way she could fight back. "So, what do you want with me?"

"YOU ARE THE HUMAN FEMALE KNOWN AS JULIE PARSONER?" they demanded.

"Who wants to know?" asked Julie.

"ANSWER! ANSWER!" the Daleks screamed. "OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Fine, yes!" said Julie. "That's me!"

"IDENTITY CONFIRMED," said the Dalek at the head of the procession. "THIS IS THE SOURCE OF THE 21ST CENTURY ENCRYPTION BREACH."

"Encryption..." Julie's eyes widened. "That transmission I uncovered. That was you!"

"CORRECT," said the Dalek.

Julie began inching back towards the complex machinery. She might not be familiar with this level of technological sophistication, but she was hoping she could work something out before they killed her. Because they were going to kill her — she knew that.

"If you're trying to stop me from telling the Doctor about it, you're too late," said Julie. "He's probably on his way here, already."

A screen popped up in the middle of the air, an image of a white Dalek with a cold, glaring eyestalk. "THAT IS CORRECT," the white Dalek said. "THE DOCTOR WILL ARRIVE IN THE 39TH CENTURY. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE WILL BE GAINED."

Julie's breath caught in her throat. They _wanted_ him in the 39th century? Was this another part of the trap set back when the Doctor had been in the Initiative?

Someone had been manipulating everyone behind the scenes. And that someone wanted the Doctor.

Julie couldn't imagine what these Daleks actually wanted the Doctor for, but she was pretty sure it was something bad. Although… probably not as bad as the Daleks' plans for _her_.

"What do you want me for?" Julie asked.

The eyestalk narrowed its focus on Julie, as the white Dalek scrutinized her in detail. "CALIBRATION TESTING."

"EFFECTS OF THE TEMPORAL TELEPORTER HAVE PENETRATED THE VORTEX!" one of the Daleks announced. "THE DOCTOR WILL BE HERE!"

"INITIALIZE DELTA TRANSFER CALIBRATION TEST!" shouted the white-domed Dalek.

Julie took the opportunity to spin around and dart over to the nearby controls, her eyes fixed on one button in particular, one that she was fairly sure would do what she wanted. If this was a trap for the Doctor, she had to make sure that he knew about it. No matter what this... calibration test was going to do to her.

"ALERT! ALERT!" the Daleks shrieked, in unison. "THE HUMAN FEMALE IS ESCAPING."

"DELTA TRANSFER CALIBRATION TEST INITIATED!" shouted another Dalek.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" a third Dalek demanded of Julie. "OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Julie felt something weird and tingly inside of her. She darted through the Daleks, diving towards the button. She didn't know if she'd live through this. She didn't know if they'd exterminate her, or miss, or if she'd even reach the button in time.

But maybe _this_ would be enough to make up for the fact that she'd been a thoroughly horrible person throughout the rest of her life.

"EXTERMINATE!" shouted the Daleks.

Julie lunged for the button.

And then the world went black.


	2. Chapter 2

The TARDIS, The Time Vortex 

"He... does know where he's going," said Rory, clinging to the railing around the central console. "Right?"

"Of course I know where I'm going!" the Doctor insisted, pulling at the controls of his ship and dancing around the central console. "The Hargradentoid Gardens, 9932! Best slushies in the galaxy, and enough flowers and excitement to last you a lifetime."

"So, now that we know we're not going there," said Amy, walking around the central console, "where else do you think we'll wind up?"

"Not going there?" the Doctor cried. "Amelia Pond, are you accusing me of being unable to pilot my own TARDIS?"

Amy gave him a pointed look. "Twelve years," she reminded him. "And four psychiatrists."

The Doctor brushed this away. "Considering the overall vastness of the infinity of..." He stopped in his excited dance around the central console, peering at the view-screen monitor. "Now that's odd."

Amy and Rory looked at one another.

"What's odd?" they asked, in unison.

The Doctor, instead of answering, grabbed up a large net on a pole, and darted over to the doors, stumbling a few times as the TARDIS rocked violently through the vortex. He flung the doors open and scooped something into the TARDIS.

"Well, hello," said the Doctor, fishing the object out of the net and examining it. "What are you?"

Amy and Rory both waited for him to answer his own question, but the Doctor didn't seem to be in any hurry to do so.

"What... what is it?" Rory asked.

The Doctor looked up at them, then tucked the item into his pocket and closed the TARDIS doors. He leapt over to the central console, and began poking and prodding at buttons. "I believe that our excursion to the Hargradentoid Gardens might have to wait."

"So where to, now?" Amy asked the Doctor, a gleam of excitement in her eyes.

"39th century!" said the Doctor, throwing a lever.

"39th century," Rory mused. "The last time we went there, you dropped the two of us off in the middle of a massive civil war."

"That was Avrolancrum Minor," said the Doctor, "in the _early_ 39th century, and half a universe away! We're going to Earth, mid-39th century!" He pounded a few extra buttons. "Right smack in the middle of the Assembled Association of the Greater United States!" He then began to say something else, but whatever he said next was covered up by the loud wheezing and groaning of the TARDIS slamming into its materialization sequence.

"What?" Amy shouted.

The TARDIS suddenly fell silent, and all the shaking stopped.

"I said that actually, in all fairness, _I_ was going to 39th century America," the Doctor explained, as the TARDIS pinged its arrival. "You two are going to go back to the 20th century to do some poking about."

"So this is the 20th century, then?" Amy asked, springing forwards.

"No!" the Doctor said, interposing himself between Amy and the door. "That's the 39th century. You two are going to stay behind while I step outside, so that I can trigger the flight path I just programmed in, which will bring you and the TARDIS back to the late 20th century."

Rory and Amy looked at one another, then at the Doctor.

"Which... would leave us in the late 20th century," said Rory.

"Which is basically when we came from," said Amy.

"...what she said," Rory agreed, "with no way to fly the TARDIS so we could get back here to tell you what we've found when we were poking about."

"Which sounds a lot like you're sending us away somewhere safe," Amy continued, "while you go off and do something dangerous."

The Doctor dismissed the suggestion entirely. "Of course not!" he insisted. "Absolutely and completely... well, a bit. No, not a bit. A lot of a bit. But, to be fair, I'm only sending you away because I need to send the TARDIS away."

Amy crossed her arms, and nodded at the outer doors. "You know what's out there, don't you?"

"Not at all!" insisted the Doctor. "Now. When you arrive in the 20th century, do _not_ involve Elizabeth in any way — all this is in her future, and she shouldn't know about it. Go to UC Sunnydale, locate a Professor Maggie Walsh, and she should have files on something called the '314 Project'. I need everything you can possibly gather on that subject. And... word of warning. If she catches you, she'll almost certainly try to kill you."

"So... you're _not_ sending us somewhere safe," Rory concluded.

"But you're still stranding yourself here, in the 39th century, with no way back to your TARDIS," Amy pointed out.

The Doctor thrust his hands in his pockets. "Oh, there's a way back," he muttered. "That's the problem."

"What do you mean?" Amy demanded. "Doctor, what did you find in the vortex?"

The Doctor shuffled a little, then pulled the item in question out of his pocket. It was a chunky black cell phone, which looked like it had been designed about 11 years ago (or at least 11 years before Amy and Rory's time), with a sticker across the back saying, "Property of Julie Parsoner." Three numbers blazed upon the phone's tiny display.

"314."

* * *

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

The sounds of the TARDIS echoed across not only the Earth's surface, but, 3,000 light years away, a Dalek space ship.

"TEMPORAL SIGNATURE LOCATED!" shouted a Dalek. "TARDIS MATERIALIZATION SEQUENCE DETECTED!"

The view-screen featuring the white domed image of the Dalek Supreme flicked into existence.

"THE DOCTOR HAS ARRIVED?" the Dalek Supreme demanded.

"CORRECT!" the Dalek surveying the equipment replied. The Dalek spun around, and connected his manipulator arm with various different bits of machinery, the screens nearby changing in rapid succession. "THE DOCTOR HAS ARRIVED ON PLANET EARTH! THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE WILL BE GAINED, AND THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME!"

The sound of the TARDIS dematerializing rang through the Dalek space ship.

"DEMATERIALIZATION SEQUENCE ACTIVATED!" shouted a Dalek.

"THIS IS EXPECTED," the Dalek Supreme replied. "THE DOCTOR WILL BE CUT OFF FROM HIS TARDIS. HE WILL BE UNABLE TO ESCAPE."

"BIO-SIGNATURE READINGS INDICATE THREE LIFE SIGNS ON BOARD THE TARDIS!" the Dalek reported. "ONE TIME LORD REMAINS ON THE PLANET EARTH. THE TWO HUMANS HAVE TRAVELED BACK IN TIME."

The Dalek Supreme seemed to think about this a moment. "DISCOVER THE LOCATION OF THE DOCTOR'S TARDIS," the Dalek Supreme commanded.

The Daleks on the space ship swarmed across the machinery, twisting and adjusting and analyzing as rapidly as their pepper-pot shaped suits would allow. The screens surrounding them blazed with a series of images and data, pouring through the ship too rapidly for a human eye to process.

"ALERT! ALERT!" shouted one of the Daleks. "TARDIS LOCATED! LOCATION: SUNNYDALE, EARTH, AUGUST 14, 1999."

"THE DOCTOR HAS SENT HIS COMPANIONS TO SUBVERT THE PLAN!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "THE DOCTOR'S COMPANIONS MUST BE LOCATED AND EXTERMINATED!"

"EXTERMINATE!" chorused the Daleks, in excitement. "EXTERMINATE!"

"THE DALEKS WILL GAIN THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME!"

A loud bang blasted through the air of the space ship, as the ship itself lurched, violently, causing the Daleks to slide and have to activate their magnetic sealing devices to hold themselves in place.

"BOMBARDMENT RECOMMENCING!" shouted the Daleks. "ALL DALEKS TO BATTLE POSITIONS!"

The sound of another loud explosion, and an even more violent shaking of the ship, as the alarms blazed across the bridge, and the Daleks began scurrying.

"HULL BREACH DETECTED!"

"ALL WEAPONS SYSTEMS OFF-LINE!"

"PROJECTED DESTRUCTION OF THIS VESSEL IN 560 RELS!"

"TIME CORRIDOR TO 1999 INITIALIZING!"

From the view-screen, the Dalek Supreme was twitching his eyestalk in anger. "THE DOCTOR'S COMPANIONS MUST BE EXTERMINATED! THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE MUST BE GAINED! THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME!"

Yet the shouts of chaos from the Daleks did not cease, nor did the myriad of sparks and explosions that cascaded across the control room of the Dalek ship.

"FORCE SHEILD FAILING!"

"DRIVE SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN!"

"CATASTROPHIC HULL COLLAPSE IMMINENT!"

"ALL SYSTEMS GOING OFFLINE!"

With a whirr and a hiss, all the electronics in the ship shut off. There was another blast and a violent rupture of electronic devices being separated from the ship itself, but at that moment, a blue swirling tunnel of light appeared in the middle of the bridge.

"TIME CORRIDOR ACTIVE!"

"THE DALEKS WILL EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR'S—"

That was when the Daleks' ship exploded.

* * *

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

"This is so typical!" Amy complains, as they walked down the streets of Sunnydale. "The Doctor finds something dangerous, and he sends us off somewhere safe."

"Right," said Rory, examining his surroundings. "And by somewhere safe, you mean the mouth of Hell."

"Exactly!" said Amy.

Rory nodded, slowly. "Just checking."

"Besides," said Amy. "If we get in trouble here, we know people who can help us out. But if the Doctor gets in trouble in the 39th century, he won't have anyone. And he always gets in trouble."

"I thought the Doctor said not to contact Buffy," said Rory.

"Yes, but he also tells us not to wander off," Amy pointed out.

Rory faltered. "I... guess."

"Come on!" said Amy. "The faster we get to the University, the sooner we can figure out..."

Amy stopped, suddenly, just staring ahead of her. Then her eyes widened.

"Amy?" Rory asked.

Amy swore, then turned and ran, grabbing Rory's hand and yanking him along with her as they ducked into a back alley. She leaned against the brick wall, muttering a string of curses under her breath.

"I... take it that means we're in more trouble than we thought," said Rory.

Amy said nothing for a moment. Then she gave a dry laugh. "Typical!"

"What's typical?" asked Rory. "What... did you see, back there?"

Amy glanced over her shoulder at Rory. "The Doctor."


	3. Chapter 3

The Assembled Association of the Greater United States, Earth, 3847

Colonel Fnadick Kimpton had been briefed on the situation and formed a coherent strategy that he felt he could successfully carry out. But he had to admit, nowhere in that strategy did he provide for the chance occurrence that a big blue box would suddenly appear in the middle of the battlefield, produce an awkward, skinny man wearing a tweed jacket and bow tie, and then promptly disappear. It seemed such an unlikely thing to have happen that Kimpton wondered if he'd actually seen it at all.

"I think... there must be something wrong with our eyes," said his partner, Pitrarca Loponarf. "You didn't just see...?"

"A blue box appear and then vanish?" Kimpton asked. "I wish I could say I hadn't."

"But that couldn't possibly... I mean, I'd say it was a teleport, but why would any civilian want to teleport here?" said Pitrarca.

The man that had emerged from the disappearing box was now wandering around, completely oblivious to the fact that he was standing right in the middle of a battlefield.

"Maybe he got lost," said Kimpton. "He looks lost."

"There isn't even a teleport pad out here!" Pitrarca exclaimed. "How could he have done it? I mean, the possibility is so remote that we don't even have any sort of strategy to deal with this situation!"

"What worries me," said Kimpton, "is that _they_ do."

He pointed to the right, where a swarm of patched-together, cybernetic demonoids were already flocking towards the bumbling human man on the battlefield.

Pitrarca frowned. "Huh." Then she gave a small sigh, stood up out of her crouch, and offered a hand to help Kimpton to his feet. "Well, I guess we'd better go rescue him."

Kimpton accepted the hand, but gave Pitrarca a look of incredulity. "What, the two of us?"

"Who else?" said Pitrarca. "It's not like the humans are going to be any help."

They both drew out their matter-disintegration guns, and began to maneuver towards the lost human. The human, by this point, had noticed the opposing army, and — astonishingly enough — was just watching them with a sort of interested curiosity.

Was this human stupid, or had he just not watched the news recently?

"No wonder the humans are losing," Pitrarca muttered, "bumbling around like this."

Kimpton shushed her, then tugged her behind a pile of rubble that had once been the side of a building, so they would remain out of sight. They were close enough, now, that Kimpton could hear what the lost human was saying.

"...not who you expected, then?" the man asked.

One of the soldiers raised up a clawed hand, and grabbed at the human, who only just managed to dart out of the way in time.

"Where is the Doctor?" the soldier hissed. "Tell us, or prepare to die."

"Ah, well, see, you just missed him, actually," said the man. "Nipped off in his blue box. Decided to leave me somewhere safe. Although I think..." dodging another swipe of the claw, "he might have gotten that a bit wrong."

The soldiers from the opposing army looked at one another.

"He knows the Doctor," snarled one. "He might be useful."

"Oh, I don't know him, really," said the man. "Just got a bit of a lift. That sort of thing."

Pitrarca glanced over at Kimpton, and gave a 'let's go' gesture. They began to sneak out from their hiding place, closer to the lost human man.

"Take him to Adam," one of the enemy soldiers commanded. "We will see what..."

And that was when Pitrarca jumped out at them, giving an angry shout as she dove towards the crowd of soldiers, shooting two with her matter-disintegration gun (their bodies shuddering back at the blow, but not disintegrating, as Pitrarca and Kimpton both knew far too well) and somersaulting through the air above the soldiers as she grabbed the human by his shirt and yanked him out of their midst.

Kimpton provided covering fire, launching two seismic grenades while he was at it, and managing to disable three of them. Pitrarca took another shot, and managed to disintegrate an arm from a large one to her right, but the rest of the monster remained intact. Problem was, now Kimpton and Pitrarca had just given away their position, which meant their strategy had just failed, and... darn it, this stupid human had just messed all this up for them.

Kimpton stumbled after Pitrarca, sliding out of the grips of two soldiers and managing to outrun a third, as he saw Pitrarca land on the muddy ground and plop the human down onto his feet. She swiveled her eyes to look at Kimpton, and the moment she saw him, she grabbed the human by his forearm, and dragged him after them.

The enemy army was giving chase.

"Carflodashians!" the man cried. "Oh, I haven't seen you in a long while!"

"Yeah, and they weren't supposed to, either, until you made us rescue you and give away our position!" Pitrarca scolded. "What were you thinking?"

"Well, I thought this area was supposed to be the center of a vibrant metropolis," said the man. "It usually is."

"The city of New Vankerfeld was obliterated ten days ago!" snapped Pitrarca. "Where have you been living? Peladon?"

"Not living, exactly, but, actually, yes, I have been to Peladon recently," the man babbled. "Or not exactly recently, but in the near future, I will go to Peladon."

Pitrarca scowled, and was about to retort something else, when Kimpton cut her off. "Those soldiers," he said — mostly to the man, but partly to Pitrarca, "from Adam's army. They were looking for someone. Who did they want?"

"Ah," said the man. "That would be me."

"You?" Pitrarca and Kimpton exclaimed.

"Shh!" the man said. "I don't want them to know it's me! I want them to think I'm someone else."

"Why in the Galactic Federation would they possibly want some stupid, bumbling human who can't even control his own teleporter?" Pitrarca asked.

"Well, see, if I corrected all the inaccuracies in that statement, you'd know," said the man. "But, seeing as how we're fleeing for our lives, I won't at the moment. However, if you would be so kind, I was wondering if you might point me in the direction of any dangerous time experiments."

"Now I know you're off your rocker," said Pitrarca.

"What do you mean, time experiments?" Kimpton asked. "You mean like time travel?"

"Exactly!" said the man.

"There haven't been any time travel experiments since the fall of the Earth Empire 800 years ago," said Pitrarca. "With the price of trisilicate being what it is, you humans are lucky to be able to afford trans-galactic space travel."

The man frowned. "That's worrisome," he confessed. "Very, very worrisome."

"Why?" asked Kimpton.

The man tucked a hand into his pocket and brought out a small, black rectangular device. "Because I found this phone from the 21st century floating about in the vortex right around this year. And if you didn't put it there, and Adam didn't put it there, then who did?"

* * *

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

"What do you mean, the Doctor?" Rory asked. "You mean he's already here to pick us up?"

"Remember what I mentioned to you," said Amy, "about how if the Doctor says he'll land somewhere, that's the last place we'll ever wind up?"

Rory nodded.

"I stand by my statement," said Amy.

Rory looked around him, his face in a frown. "But... we're in Sunnydale. And this is the late 20th century."

"Yes," said Amy. "But I'm guessing that the Doctor wasn't planning to send us back into his own past!"

Rory thought a moment, and then started to realize the extent of the problem. "Oh," he said. "So when you said that you saw the Doctor..."

"Yes," said Amy.

"...it wasn't..."

"Yes."

"...the same Doctor we just..."

"Yes!" Amy snapped.

Rory nodded, slowly. "If there's another Doctor wandering around, is there another us wandering around, too?"

"No, this is the 'him' from before he met us," said Amy. "An earlier regeneration."

Which meant, from what Rory had gathered about regeneration, that the Doctor would not look or act like the Doctor they knew.

"Then maybe... that's not the Doctor at all," Rory offered.

"He's dressed funny, he's carrying a sonic screwdriver, he's babbling on about time and space, and Buffy's fawning over him," said Amy. "It's definitely the Doctor."

Well, that cleared that up.

"This... is very bad, isn't it?" Rory asked.

Amy thought a moment. Then a smile crept up her face. "Or... very good."

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like what you're about to say?" Rory sighed.

"We need the Doctor to operate the TARDIS," said Amy. "And we thought we couldn't get back to the 39th century, because the Doctor wasn't here. But if this earlier Doctor's here, instead..."

"Yeah, I have the feeling that's a really... really... really bad idea," said Rory.

Amy just gave an excited grin, and Rory could tell his wife wasn't paying attention.

"Look, I'm not a time travel expert," said Rory, "but I'm pretty sure meeting the Doctor before we're supposed to goes against those... Laws of Time that the Doctor and River are always warning us about."

"Since when did you care about the Laws of Time?" Amy demanded.

Rory fidgeted. "Well, I just..." He stopped, as he realized that he didn't actually have a good answer to this. "Well, maybe if we..." After all, he'd been pretty tempted to abandon those Laws of Time, himself. He shook his head. "If we change the Doctor's past, before he ever met us, isn't there a chance he might wind up never meeting us in his own future?"

The grin fell from Amy's face, and she slumped back against the wall.

"I think we should just do exactly what the Doctor said," Rory told his wife. "Research Professor Walsh, find out about the 314 project, and then go back to the TARDIS."

Amy creased her forehead in thought, then sighed, and got up. "Oh, all right." She grabbed Rory's hand, and dragged him forward. "Come on. The sooner we find this Professor Walsh, the sooner we can find some way to get back to the 39th..."

A squelching sound ripped through the air, and Amy made a face, as she looked down at where she'd just stepped. She removed her shoe.

"What is that?" she asked, examining the underside of her shoe with a disgusted grimace.

Rory frowned, as he stepped closer. "It... smells a little like licorice."

Amy sniffed the bottom of the shoe, and glanced back at Rory. "You're right. It does smell like licorice." She sighed, then put her shoe back on, and continued walking. "It's not important. Come on."

Rory and Amy hurried off towards UC Sunnydale, leaving behind one very clear footprint in the licorice covered sidewalk. Neither giving it any thought at all.

.........

"I'm just saying there's tons of super evil stuff, here," Buffy said. "I mean, what if you leave, and then I see some crazy evil monster and need your help to slay it?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her, spiky brown hair waving in the wind, one hand in his brown pinstripe pocket. "Sorry, are you asking me to stay around to help you kill things?"

Buffy cringed. "There were kind of a lot of parts of that sentence that didn't work, huh?"

"The word 'help' seemed to fit," the Doctor replied. "As for the others, well, not so much." His chocolate-brown eyes drifted down to the sidewalk, and he stopped, frowning. "Hello. What's this?"

Buffy stopped, too, and tucked her hair behind her ears, nervously. Then tried to hide her nerves behind a mask of complete innocence. "What's what?"

The Doctor crouched down beside the inky black puddle. Which, it looked like, someone had stepped in — which was annoying, because Buffy had worked hard to make that puddle look just right, and then for someone to just walk all over it like it was nothing! She'd almost feel insulted, if it weren't for the fact that the Doctor seemed to treat the shoe print as if it gave the puddle some credibility.

"What's that?" asked Buffy.

"Trouble," muttered the Doctor. "Big trouble."

"Like... you-have-to-stay-around type trouble?" Buffy asked.

The Doctor gave a little sigh. "Yes, I'm afraid I do," he admitted. "Somehow, don't think you'll be able to work this one out on your own."

Buffy tried to hide her excitement at his staying beneath a mask of sad, 'oh, no, something might end the world'. She'd honestly never thought this would work. In fact, she'd half expected the Doctor to lick the licorice and figure out what it really was right away.

But he hadn't.

He just squatted down, his eyes staring off into the distance, his forehead creased in a contemplative frown.

"It's... something really bad, isn't it?" Buffy asked.

Try the most horrible set of monsters she could find in Giles' books.

"What?" the Doctor asked, starting out of his reverie. He glanced down at the puddle. "Oh. Possibly." He considered. "Probably," he amended. He sighed, as he stood up. "Well, suppose we'd better find them."

"Who?" asked Buffy, playing innocent.

The Doctor gave her a sideways smile. "Whoever left this, of course," he said, nodding at the puddle. "You coming?"

Buffy gave him a wide grin. "Try and stop me."

.........

In the middle of a cluster of trees was one tree that didn't match the others. It featured a carefully carved set of claw-marks, and a beautifully sculpted paw-print directly in front of its trunk.

Then a flash of blue light appeared just in front of the tree, spitting out one single pepper-pot shaped object into the town of Sunnydale. The sole survivor from the exploded ship.

The Dalek swiveled its eyestalk to take in its surroundings.

It had come to the right place. Its fellow soldiers were dead, but it was still alive, and it would carry out its mission. To locate the Doctor's companions, and exterminate them.

The plan would not fail.

The Dalek flew off the ground, and went to carry out its work.


	4. Chapter 4

The Assembled Association of the Greater United States, 3847

Adam spun around to face his carefully constructed super-army. The monsters he'd engineered to destroy all life within his reach. He had constructed them to be weaker than himself, less clever than his own mind, but he hadn't thought he'd programmed them to be idiots.

"You're saying you let him go," Adam said.

"The blue box faded before our eyes!" one of his soldiers protested. "We didn't have a chance to—"

"I don't require the blue box," Adam told them. "I can summon the TARDIS by using the power of the symbiotic link. All I need is the Doctor." He marched over to them. "And you let him go."

"We never saw the Doctor," said the other soldier. "Honest! It was just some skinny, awkward human with floppy brown hair who—"

"That," said Adam, "is the Doctor. The same man with a different face."

"But... but that's... that's impossible!" said his soldiers.

"It is the truth," said Adam. "It matches the empirical facts I have gathered after observing him for two months. These two people are the same person, but at two different points in his personal timeline."

Adam remembered. The Doctor. One locked in the Initiative, and one running around, on the surface. That same Doctor, returning to 2000, over and over again. Searching. Trying to recover something he believed he lost. Inner peace, perhaps? Some way to come to terms with the torture and the pain and all those other weak emotions that made the rest of the universe so inferior to Adam's self?

The reason didn't matter. The Doctor's actions played to Adam's advantage. Because now, Adam could recognize the Doctor, even with his new face.

"Next time," said Adam, "I want the Doctor brought here. Alive, but helpless. Do you understand? No more mistakes."

The soldiers nodded, and ran off to do Adam's bidding.

Adam's second-in-command just stood there, arms akimbo, watching the soldiers scamper off. "You really think they're going to catch him that easily? After everything you've told me about him?"

Adam gave the soldier that was once Deborah Raykins a large grin. "Oh, no," he said. "This time, I'm expecting a challenge."

... ... ...

"I don't have time for this," said General Mark Gratewell. "If he's a civi, drop him into one of the safe houses. This is a war, not a loony bin."

"Actually, rather think I might be able to help," the Doctor offered.

Gratewell looked him over. "No."

"The enemy army seemed very interested in capturing him," Kimpton put in. "In fact, they had an entire established strategy for dealing with his appearance. Almost as if they were expecting him."

Gratewell frowned. "Okay," he said, turning to face the Doctor. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor!" the Doctor said, offering him a hand. "Pleasure to meet you!"

Gratewell didn't take it. He glanced back at Kimpton and Pitrarca. "You saved a medic."

"Ah, not that kind of doctor, actually," the Doctor corrected. He slipped out his psychic paper, and handed it to Gratewell. "Here you are, General. Qualifications. Credentials."

Gratewell took the psychic paper from the Doctor, and examined it. Then straightened to attention, and saluted. "Sorry, sir! I had no idea!"

"Of course you didn't; perfectly understandable," said the Doctor, retrieving the psychic paper and giving it a brief glance to discover his new identity. Doctor John Smith, overseer for the Galactic Federation General Safety Administration. He slipped it back into his pocket, then clapped his hands together. "Right! First things first! What, exactly, is going on here?"

"You mean you don't know?" asked Gratewell.

"He's from Peladon," Pitrarca whispered.

Gratewell gave a small nod. "I'm afraid the situation on Earth is far more desperate than that on Peladon," he said. "About eight months ago, a team of archaeologists uncovered a bio-mechanical creation of human design which had somehow withstood all biological and mechanical decay and corruption. The team brought the creation back to the American Central Museum, where it was made compatible with our current technological advances, at which point it massacred every single person in the museum and ran off. Even Deborah Raykins."

"You don't say!" said the Doctor, who had no idea who Deborah Raykins was.

"None of us could believe it, either," said Gratewell. "She had others with her, too. All dead within a few seconds. Not even our best energy-blast-repellant armor worked."

"Projectile weapons?"

"Apparently so," said Gratewell. "Every member of his army has them, now. They fold out of their arms, and fire a large number of projectiles through the air at high speed. We've been scrambling for a solution, but... our best scientists were hunted down and killed right at the very beginning of this slaughter. Which means we have no defense, no understanding of that sort of weaponry, and no way to strike back."

"I see," said the Doctor. "And all the information you'd need to defend yourselves against a projectile weapon would have been lost back in the electromagnetic storm of 3269."

"Correct," said Gratewell. "It's beyond me how a bio-mechanoid from the 21st century managed to survive that storm with all its systems intact."

"It's beyond me why you humans would reanimate something looking like that in the first place," Pitrarca mumbled.

Gratewell gave her a pointed glare, and Pitrarca snapped back to attention.

"For the past eight months," Gratewell continued, "this creature — Adam, he calls himself — has gone on a campaign of death and destruction across the entire world, constructing an army from the fragmented remains of the dead. We've tried fighting him, reasoning with him, giving him concessions, but nothing has worked. As far as we can tell, Adam doesn't want anything or have any long term goals except for the complete destruction of all life on Earth."

"Projectile weapons or no," said the Doctor, "you should have found some way to fight back against Adam at this point in history. After all, your technology is 1800 years ahead of his."

"Every creature in Adam's army is designed to absorb energy blasts," said Kimpton. "If you shoot them, it makes them stronger. The only weapon we've got that can hurt Adam's soldiers at all are the disintegrator rays."

"And you saw how hard it is to disintegrate them," Pitrarca added. "They're made of so many bits and pieces with different DNA, you aim a disintegration ray at them, and it just removes one little piece."

"Besides which, Adam's army is infinitely adaptable and creative," Kimpton put in. "Their intellect is staggering, their strategy flawless. Their bodies are impervious to physical harm. The soldiers feel no pain, need no food or sleep, and always seem to be aware of our plans before we carry them out. They see two steps ahead of us, predict every move we make."

"If it wasn't for the Carflodashians, the human race would be finished by now," Gratewell admitted. "But for some reason, Adam constantly underestimates the Carflodashians."

A chill ran down the Doctor's spine, as a vague recollection of a memory long removed from his mind began to come back to him. A memory that had been sought out and shattered by someone who wanted to make sure the Doctor didn't know it. A memory that was now finally — _finally_ — being restored to him.

_Adam doesn't know how to make Carflodashian Vampires split up._

Someone else keeping him in the Initiative. Someone behind the scenes. Someone who could make Carflodashian vampires split up. Someone with access to Carflodashians and time travel.

This was beginning to sound very, very bad, indeed.

The Doctor spun around to Pitrarca. "You! You brought up a good point, earlier. You asked why humans would dig up something that looks like Frankenstein's monster, and think it was a good idea to reanimate it." He spun back to Gratewell. "So? Why did you?"

"We need weapons, Doctor," said Gratewell. "If we can gain even a small advantage, it's worth the risk. That's IPSA's philosophy, and I stand by it."

"IPSA," the Doctor repeated. "IPSA, IPSA, IPSA..." He frowned. "That'd be the Galactic Federation's Military, then."

Pitrarca, Kimpton, and Gratewell all stared at him.

"I know you've been living on Peladon, but... are you really saying that you've never heard of IPSA?" asked Kimpton.

"Of course I've heard of IPSA!" the Doctor lied. "Just... a bit disoriented from the near-death experience. So. What's IPSA doing about this whole Adam affair, then?"

Kimpton, Pitrarca, and Gratewell all looked at one another. Then, in unison, they answered: "Nothing."

The Doctor was taken aback. "Nothing? ! Nothing at all?"

"Of course not!" said Kimpton. "They've wished us the best, but they're hardly going to send us soldiers from Lasky's Nebula."

"Lasky's Nebula?" the Doctor cried. "You mean to tell me that Adam's nearly destroyed planet Earth, all your weapons are useless, and your IPSA is camped out 3,000 light years away?"

"Well, why shouldn't they be?" said Pitrarca. "Adam's just threatening this planet. The Daleks are threatening the entire Galactic Federation."

Daleks.

The doomsday scenario.

The one name the Doctor had hoped beyond hope that he wouldn't hear. The one name that he'd been increasingly worried he would hear, since he began talking to Gratewell. The only reason the humans would be desperate enough to resurrect someone like Adam.

"I think this means I've just sent Amy and Rory to the wrong time," he muttered. "And into some very serious danger."

"What?" asked Pitrarca.

"Nothing!" the Doctor assured her. He frowned. "Well, no, not nothing. Something. A very big, nasty sort of something. Because the Dalek Supreme was working to a different agenda than that temporal team I encountered, back during that thing with the Fountain of Kulkmattoll. An entirely different agenda. And if the Daleks were the ones that wanted me trapped for two months — if the Daleks planned this entire thing..." His thoughts raced through the implications.

"The Daleks couldn't possibly have planned this catastrophe," Gratewell said. "They knew nothing about our efforts to uncover—"

"Elizabeth!" the Doctor cried, springing up and clutching the General by his shoulders. "I didn't destroy Adam, in the end! It was Elizabeth! Had to be! And that means..." He stepped back, and whipped the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and frantically adjusted it. He turned, and ran outside the tent.

Kimpton and Pitrarca rushed after him.

"Where are you going?" Kimpton shouted. "This is a warzone!"

"If I'm right," said the Doctor, "Julie was just the Daleks' test run. They're trying to bring someone else here. And I'm guessing they want her to find me. Which means..." The Doctor paused, examined the sonic screwdriver, then darted off as fast as he could, "I can trace the signal!"


	5. Chapter 5

Sunnydale, May 25th, 2000

"Well, no one's tried to kill me in my dreams, today!" said Xander. "So I call that a step in the right direction."

"Xander," said Buffy, threading a wooden dowel into the crossbow she was holding, "that was 2 days ago."

"Hey, I'm just saying!" said Xander, as they paraded through the cemetery. "We might be on the lookout for the Doctor's 'other something keeping him in the Initiative,' which is alieny and even more evil and manipulative than Adam, but as long as it doesn't attack me in my dreams, I'm all right."

"Very few demons do that," Anya told him. "Usually they just try to suck out your soul."

"Yeah, not helping, An," said Xander.

"Are... any of you ever going to actually tell me what you did to defeat Adam?" Riley asked. "Or should I just keep guessing?"

"Said a spell, summoned a dark primeval force beyond comprehension, pulled Adam's uranium core out of his chest cavity and made it disappear into the air," said Buffy, with a shrug. "The normal thing."

"It was pretty standard," Willow agreed. "Besides the whole summoning an ancient primeval force beyond our comprehension that tried to kill us in our dreams thing. That was kind of new."

"And then there was that Cheese Man that kept popping up!" said Xander. "Don't forget the Cheese Man! That's _got_ to be important."

"You know, I can safely say that I have no idea what you're talking about," said Riley.

"Oh, he was just this guy who kept popping up in our dreams offering us cheese for no reason," Willow explained. "Right before the... um... inconceivable power of the First Slayer tried to kill us."

"It's magic, Riley," Buffy said, when it was clear that Riley still had no idea what was going on. "Don't worry about it."

Riley gave a slow nod. "And you're sure that Adam's really gone this time?" he asked. "Because you said that to us before, then backpedalled."

"He's really gone this time," Buffy reassured him. "And I wasn't backpedalling. I was just lying to the Doctor."

"Just a thought," said Xander, "but... for two people who claim to trust each other completely, you and the Doctor both lie to each other all the time."

"He's got a point," said Riley.

Buffy shot Riley a glare that was intended to remind him that she still hadn't completely forgiven him for what he'd done to the Doctor. The glare worked. Riley faltered, and seemed to back off.

"And, I mean, if the Doctor stuck around, that whole killing-in-the-dreams thing probably wouldn't have happened," Willow added. She grimaced. "I know you like him, but... Xander's kind of right. You shouldn't have lied to him."

"Can we just drop this?" said Buffy. "This whole Adam thing is over. We did the spell, we got the First Slayer out of our dreams, and everything's back to normal. The Initiative's gone, Adam's gone, and there's no way that creepy cyborg demon guy is ever — _ever_ — coming..."

That was when the entire world seemed to jerk around Buffy, and all the air got sucked out of her lungs, as her stomach turned and...

Buffy blinked. She rubbed her eyes, then blinked again. She stared. Okay, this was definitely not Sunnydale anymore. It looked more like a vast, empty wilderness of destroyed buildings, torn-apart trees, and... oh. Dead bodies.

Buffy sighed. Yep, this was a Buffy-day, alright.

Buffy reached out with her Slayer senses. If this place was a Hell Dimension, she wanted to be ready. Except... there wasn't really anything all that Hell Dimensiony in her senses. Just one faint... warm fuzzy...

Movement out of the corner of her eye. She spun around, and...

"...coming back," whispered Buffy.

There, in front of her, stood a patched-together monster so like Adam that it was ridiculous. Buffy wanted to hit her head on something. Couldn't she just have two days go by without an evil villain coming back from the dead?

"Embrace your destiny, human," the monster growled, as he swiped out at her.

"Did, thanks!" said Buffy, dodging the hand. She glanced around. Great. Weird place, none of her friends nearby, surrounded by Adam-lookalikes, and, judging by the warm fuzzy feeling on the edges of her Slayer Senses, she could guess who had taken her here.

She spun around, and ran.

"Thanks Doctor," she muttered, as she sprinted across the wilderness. Where the hell was the Doctor, anyways? She _knew_ she should have taken down that TARDIS repelling spell sooner! Trust the Doctor to teleport her somewhere because he needed her help and couldn't get the TARDIS into Sunnydale, and then wind up accidentally sending her somewhere nowhere near him!

She felt something weird underfoot, and as she looked down, noticed the ground was blinking. And the Adam lookalikes had started to run away. Oh, no. This was starting to look like...

A swoop of hands grabbed at her, and lifted her out of the way, as the ground exploded where she'd just been standing. No, not just exploded. It was like the whole world was shaking around her. Rubble and building remains crashed to the ground. Mud splattered through the air, crashing on top of Buffy and the creature holding her, making her clothes completely yucky and wet and muddy. She glanced up to find she was being supported by an extremely nimble, neckless creature who was swooping through the air towards its other neckless friend.

"Carkaflashians!" Buffy hissed, trying to free herself.

"Hold still, unless you want to die!" snapped the Car-whatever that was carrying her. "And it's Carflodashian, not whatever you said. We're your allies, you could at least get our name right!"

Ally?

"You mean you're not a vampire?" Buffy checked.

"Wonderful," muttered the Carflodashian. "She's just as nutty as the other one. Vampire, she says!"

"But... but I thought..." Buffy shook her head, trying to think through the thousands of confusing things rushing through her brain right now. "Wait, why can you fly?"

"I'm not flying," said the Carflodashian. "I'm just falling very gracefully. With the gravity as low as it is on this planet, it's any wonder I ever hit the ground."

"That her?" asked the second Carflodashian, as Buffy and the first one landed on the now-still ground, placing Buffy gently back down on her feet.

"Yep," said the first Carflodashian. "Just like he said. Wandering around in the middle of a battlefield, without the first idea how to locate a seismic grenade. Honestly, how stupid can these humans get?"

"It's not my fault!" Buffy insisted. "I just have a friend who's really bad at directions. Where am I, anyways?"

"New Vankerfeld," said the second Carflodashian. "Believe it or not."

"Uh-huh," said Buffy. "Any chance of... a planet or world or dimension or something else to go on? I'm sort of out-of-the-geography-loop in terms of..." She glanced around her. "...wherever this is."

The first Carflodashian gave an annoyed sigh. "How could you possibly have wound up here without knowing what planet it is?"

"Pitrarca," the second Carflodashian chided. He turned back to Buffy. "We were told you might be disoriented. We didn't realize to what extent. Forgive us. We only want to help."

"Okay," said Buffy, shaking her head. "Let's try this again." She stepped forwards, and offered the second Carflodashian her hand. "Hi. I'm Buffy. I'm from... a really long way away. I think. I got sent here by a weird alien friend who isn't very good with directions. Which means I have no idea where I am or what's going on. But I know you're Carflodashians. Your turn."

"Korjensky kid," said the Carflodashian known as Pitrarca. "Should have guessed!"

"I'm Colonel Fnadick Kimpton, of the 59th Earth Military Platoon," said Kimpton, offering Buffy a salute, "and this is my partner, Colonel Pitrarca Loponarf. As you have deduced, we are originally from the planet Carflodash, although we've been living here on Earth for the past 4 years."

"Wait, Earth?" asked Buffy. "This is Earth?"

"That's right," came a familiar English-accented voice to her right. Buffy swung her head around, to discover the Doctor racing towards her. "Earth. United States, actually. 39th century. Oh, and..." he patted his pockets, and then brought out a shrink-wrapped slice of cheese, "you'll be needing this."

"You are so kidding me!" said Buffy, as she spun around and ran over to him, tackling him into a great big hug. "Cheese?! Seriously?"

The crossbow Buffy had forgotten she was holding dug into the Doctor's back, and he jumped.

"Ouch!" said the Doctor, squirming in her far-too-tight grip. "Mind the crossbow."

Buffy readjusted her hug so the crossbow wasn't digging into the Doctor's back, but didn't pull out of it. It was far too nice to be hugging him, again.

"And, actually, as for the cheese, it's a fairly standard thing to offer on 39th century Earth," the Doctor explained. "Everything here runs off a very complex system of fusion power that unleashes an awful lot more radiation than is good for everyone, so the humans have genetically engineered all the food so it's laced with anti-radiation drugs. I've found cheese tends to be the most effective way to administer the correct dosage to time traveling..." He noticed that she was cracking up into his tweed jacket. "What?"

"Nothing, Cheese Man," said Buffy, pulling out of the hug. "Inside joke. With... some people that aren't here." She stepped back and tucked her hair behind her ears with her non-crossbow-holding hand. "So. Two days, huh? You couldn't have waited a little longer to shove me up against an adversary I _just_ faced?"

"Actually—"

"Oh, don't tell me!" said Buffy. "You wanted to bring me here to find out what I did, why I lied to you, and why you can't get your TARDIS into Sunnydale, anymore. And you would have brought me here later in my own timeline, but you thought you might as well bring me here the way I am, now, because then, at least, the battle will be fresh in my mind. Thanks, Doctor."

"Thing is—"

"No, really," said Buffy. "Thanks. Thanks for dragging me away from my friends, my home, and my time period, and taking me to somewhere completely full of dead bodies. Next thing you'll be telling me is that it's actually January 11th, and... hey, happy birthday, Buffy! Have some mass carnage!"

"I didn't bring you here," the Doctor told her.

Buffy paused. "Wait, what?"

"I didn't bring you here," the Doctor repeated.

"But... you knew I was coming," said Buffy. "You sent these Carflodash guys out after me. And... you had cheese!"

The Doctor waved the sonic screwdriver in front of her. "Traced the signal."

Buffy ran through the possibilities in her head. She wasn't liking any of them. "Adam got time travel, didn't he?" Buffy asked. "And brought me here for some sort of revenge killing, because I..."

"Adam does not have time travel technology," the Doctor reassured her. "Adam didn't bring you here. I didn't bring you here. The humans from this time period didn't bring you here. Nor the Carflodashians. Nor any of their allies."

"So who?" asked Buffy.

The Doctor handed her the cheese in a more emphatic manner. "The Daleks."

Buffy's jaw dropped. "Oh, you are so..."

"Eat up!" the Doctor said, waving the cheese in her face. "No discussing strategies until you're well fed, in clean clothes, and not in the middle of a battlefield. Now, let's go!"

Buffy snatched the cheese from him, and nibbled at it, as he led her away from the battlefield, the two Carflodashians following behind. Pitrarca tapped Buffy on the shoulder.

"If it makes any difference," she said. "It really _is_ January 11th."

Buffy sighed. "Yeah. I figured."


	6. Chapter 6

"So, this is future-Earth, huh?" asked Buffy, once they'd gotten back to the camp, and could sit down in one of the tents together. "Freaky."

"It's not so different from your own Earth," the Doctor replied. "There's the usual you'd expect, of course — technological advances, societal changes, political upheavals. But in general, people are still people."

"Except that they're all high-techy and outer-spacey," said Buffy. She was brushing the mud out of her hair using something that looked like — but definitely wasn't — a brush. Which wound up shampooing, conditioning, and blow drying her hair, as she brushed it through. (She totally needed one of these back home.) "Why hasn't the most recent Slayer taken care of these Adam guys, anyways?"

"Good question. Don't know," said the Doctor. He frowned. "Which... reminds me. You... might not want to tell anyone you're a Slayer."

Buffy laughed. "You afraid I'm gonna run into the current Slayer and get her all confused?"

She was expecting the Doctor to blow her off with a typically bizarre Doctor comment, but he just sort of shuffled awkwardly.

Buffy paused, the super-brush in her hair. "Okay... why really?"

"I just... you see..." He waved his hands in an over exaggerated gesture of dismissal. "...it's hardly important!" the Doctor insisted. "I'll explain later! Don't wander off! All that nonsense." He fiddled in his pockets, then took out another pre-packaged slice of cheese and handed it to Buffy. "Here. Eat cheese. It's from real California cows."

"You just wander around with 39th century anti-radiation cheese in your pockets?" Buffy asked, taking it from him. Then she shook her head. "No, don't answer that. You walk around with everything in your pockets. Including, apparently, my size of clothing. Which is a little disturbing."

"Not at all!" said the Doctor. "You wear the same size clothing as Emily Dickinson."

"You carry around clothes for Emily — no, no, I don't want to know." Buffy looked down at her clothes. An elegantly tailored jump-suity combination — albeit a bit more flowery and puffy than Buffy would have chosen, but still — they weren't exactly the clothes she'd expect for a 19th century poet. She frowned. "These are poet clothes?"

"Well, she needed something to change into for fighting off invading alien hordes," the Doctor explained.

Buffy sighed. Owen Thurman, eat your heart out. "You know, I'd say I was surprised that Emily Dickinson fought aliens, but if you showed up, it's inevitable, isn't it?"

"Are you implying I go looking for trouble?"

"No, I _know_ you go looking for trouble," Buffy said. "There's no 'implying' about it." She put the cheese packet down on the bench beside her, and resumed brushing out her hair. "I mean, look at now. 39th century. Earth. Adam. And Daleks!"

"Yes," said the Doctor, staring off into the distance. A very worried look on his face. "Daleks."

"Oh, and Carflodashians!" said Buffy. "Don't forget them. I totally never thought I'd see them, again. Since when could they do that swoopy flying thing?"

"Always," the Doctor said, still sounding troubled. "I assumed they'd done that when you last encountered them. I was knocked out before I could get a good look."

"Nope," said Buffy. "The one I faced was actually kind of stiff and slow."

The Doctor nodded, slowly. "I figured that."

"Yeah, I mean, the 39th century's just like you stirred up everything we'd done together over the past year and shoved it all into a blender!" said Buffy. "Carflodashians and Daleks and Adam and... all of it! I mean, Pitrarca said they've even got cave-man creating beer around here as some kind of psychedelic drug. And there was that one army guy who totally looked like that monster that Jonathan conjured up. Seriously, what are the odds that all this stuff would wind up in the 39th century? It's so random!"

The Doctor said nothing.

Buffy paused, her hand clenching a little tighter around the handle of the brush. "It's... not random, is it?" she ventured.

"It's only random," the Doctor told her, "if you have the causality backwards."

Buffy set the brush down, swinging her now-clean hair behind her shoulders. "And that would mean...?"

"You believe all these elements from the past year of your life are randomly showing up here," said the Doctor. "But they're not. This is where they came from. The events that took place over the past year were all caused by the situation unfolding in the 39th century."

Buffy nodded, slowly. "I'm guessing I'll work out what you mean when you give your super-duper explanation of what's going on."

The Doctor adjusted his bow tie. "From what I can see, this is how it started. The Daleks in the 39th century discovered a new threat on Earth — Adam's army — and..."

"How was Adam resurrected, anyways?" Buffy cut in.

The Doctor gave a dry laugh. "The usual way."

"Evil demon trying to destroy humanity?" Buffy tried.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her.

"Super evil criminal mastermind trying to rule the world?" Buffy tried again.

The Doctor raised the other eyebrow.

Buffy slumped. "It was us humans, wasn't it?"

"Knew you'd get there, eventually!" the Doctor replied, with a smile.

"Is it bad to want to beat up your own race?" Buffy said. "Because right now, I really want to."

"In their defense, they were looking for a way to defeat the Daleks," the Doctor said. "And they might have found one."

"One that would wipe them out, too."

"That's the way it usually goes." The Doctor clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Right, then! Where was I? Oh, yes! Daleks discover Adam. Daleks feel threatened by Adam. Daleks—"

"Feel threatened?" Buffy asked. "I thought the Daleks _created_ Adam."

"Course not; that'd be down to your Professor Walsh," said the Doctor. "The Daleks would never create a creature as clever and independently minded as Adam. Not unless they could destroy it easily. Which, in this case, they can't."

"The Daleks can't destroy Adam?" asked Buffy. "But... they've got those exterminatey gun things! I thought they could kill..." Buffy trailed off, as she worked it out. "Oh. Adam absorbs energy blasts, doesn't he?"

"Yep."

"Even Dalek ones?" asked Buffy. "I thought those were different from normal ones."

"They are, and Adam still does," said the Doctor. "Absorb them, I mean."

Buffy gave a small laugh. "Wow," she said. "That's lucky for him. I mean, what are the odds?"

The Doctor grinned, proudly, bouncing on his toes.

Buffy sighed. Oh, of course, she should have expected that. "You did something, didn't you?"

"Absolutely not!" the Doctor said. "Or, at least, possibly not yet. Depending on a set of things I may or may not have just put into motion. Is this terribly confusing for you?"

"I thought that was the point," said Buffy, with a sigh. "Go on. The Daleks found out Adam was around, felt threatened, and... what?"

"Formed a plan, of course," said the Doctor. "To get rid of him. Since extermination didn't work."

"A plan involving you?"

"No, they hadn't thought of that, yet!" the Doctor said. "See, problem with Adam is that disintegrator rays don't work on him and his army. Made up of too many bits and pieces. Varying DNA. Disintegrator beams work by eliminating anything in close molecular proximity with matching DNA. Which means, in this case, that if you shoot a disintegrator ray at one of Adam's army, they don't die. Not at all. In fact, only one tiny piece of them gets dissolved. But if you were to fire something bigger — something that could unravel, say, the genetic structure of every living thing nearby..."

Buffy's eyes widened. "The Fountain of Kulkmattoll!"

"Precisely!" the Doctor said. "The Fountain of Kulkmattoll and the Genetic Disintegrator! Could wipe out all life on Earth, or in this section of the galaxy — or possibly in the whole galaxy — but the Daleks wouldn't care about that. So! Off they go to pick up the Fountain from the 21st century."

"And to try to kill me," said Buffy.

"You'd have stopped them opening the Hellmouth," said the Doctor. "They had to get you out of the way."

"Plus, capturing me meant that I'd alert you," said Buffy. "So you'd be distracted while they picked up the Fountain."

"And that leads me to my next point!" said the Doctor. "Because the moment that I destroyed the Fountain, the Dalek Supreme came up with a much better plan. The Daleks want to get rid of me, they want to get rid of Adam. Best way to do that?"

Buffy hit her head against her hand. Oh, of course, she should have seen that sooner. "Pit you two against each other and let you both wipe one another out," she said. "Just like Adam did with the humans and the demons down in the Initiative."

"Exactly my thought!" The Doctor agreed. "But the Daleks knew that, at full strength, Adam wouldn't stand a chance. What with my being immensely clever and a complete and utter genius. So, they devised a plan to even out the sides."

"Stick you in the Initiative," muttered Buffy, "and let Adam get all the info he could on you, while you were completely helpless."

"Adam might not know how to make Carflodashians split up," agreed the Doctor, "but the Daleks do. Dalek mind control — too subtle for 21st century technology to detect, but certainly present. And considering there are Carflodashians running around all over this time zone, I'm guessing the Daleks didn't have a hard time finding suitable candidates."

"And you didn't notice that there were suddenly more Daleks floating around 2000?" Buffy asked. "No weird temporal trace things?"

"The Dalek Supreme almost certainly would have sent the temporal surveillance team back in time to the exact moment the Hellmouth opened," the Doctor replied. "Massive outpouring of rift energy — a perfect hiding place for a small temporal trace. They'd establish themselves on Earth, work out a way to trap my past self, then sit back and watch it all unfold. Make sure that Adam knew everything he needed to know about my biology."

"So why am I here?" Buffy asked. "If they wanted you?"

"Well, I wasn't the one who defeated Adam, in the end, was I?" the Doctor asked. "Adam was cleverer than the Daleks realized. They'd given him too much of an advantage. You're here to help me, thus balancing out the sides."

Yet again. Great. "And the Daleks weren't afraid you'd work out what they were up to, while you were in the Initiative?"

"No," said the Doctor. "And I never did. I knew nothing at all about Adam, and nothing at all about the Daleks and the Fountain. I'd be in the perfect position to assume that everything the Daleks had done was actually something that Adam had done."

"But you knew Adam wasn't behind all of it!" Buffy protested. "You told me that there was something else! I've been looking for your something else since you left!"

"A friend of mine, Julie Parsoner, worked out that there was someone else behind my incarceration," said the Doctor. "She told me. The information got blanked from my mind."

"Daleks behind that one, too?"

"Possibly," the Doctor said, pressing a finger to his lips, in thought. "Or possibly not. It was the first and foremost bit of information in my mind — first thing that would have gotten wiped out. All this might have just been a case of supremely bad luck."

"Uh-huh," said Buffy. "Just the way that the Daleks luring you into the Initiative using a set of vampires that could only be staked using your TARDIS key was a bit of luck."

The Doctor pointed at her. "Good point. Now shut up, I'm thinking." He tapped his index finger against his lips.

Buffy waited a few seconds, but her curiosity got the better of her. "You going to tell me what about?" she asked.

"No!" said the Doctor. He paused, melting beneath her death-glare. "Yes," he amended. He pulled out a chunky black cell phone from his pocket, and tossed it to Buffy. "Mobile phone. Fished it out of the vortex right around this time zone."

Buffy caught it, and examined it, her brow creased. A still-functioning cell phone from around her time, with the numbers 314 typed into the display.

"It's Julie's," the Doctor said.

"She's here?" Buffy asked. She glanced up from the phone. "Daleks, again?"

"Almost certainly," said the Doctor. "Which means they don't want her to tell me something. Something she knows. But what? They wanted me here. They knew the moment I arrived, I'd know the Daleks were around as well." He ruffled his hair. "She must have found out some information I needed. Something I could have used."

"Or the Daleks could have planted this phone in the vortex for you to find," Buffy pointed out, waving the phone at him. "To get you here."

"That," said the Doctor, pointing at Buffy, "is a very disturbing notion."

Buffy frowned, staring down at the cell phone, again. "Except... they couldn't have punched the keys without hands. So they'd need Julie around to type it in."

"All of which means that Julie is almost certainly here, in this time zone, needing a rescue," the Doctor said. He grabbed the cell phone from Buffy, tucked it into a pocket, then clasped his hands behind his back and rocked in his boots. "Well, then! One planet to save, two unstoppable bio-mechanical mutant armies to defeat, one person to rescue, and two very confused companions to pick up, when all this is done."

"And we've got... what?" Buffy asked. "A TARDIS..."

"No TARDIS!" the Doctor told her. "Not wise around Adam."

"Okay," said Buffy, glancing around her. "So. We've got... a tent. My wooden crossbow. A sonic screwdriver. Some clothes from Emily Dickinson. And cheese."

"All I've ever needed," chirruped the Doctor. He hopped over to her. "Easy peasy! Once saved the world in 20 minutes with nothing but a mobile and a borrowed laptop, after all."

Buffy raised her eyebrows at him. "I've saved the world with nothing but a really long piece of string."

"Well, then!" said the Doctor. "See? We'll be just fine! If you and I can save the world with a piece of string and a mobile phone, we should be more than able to defend mutters spiral with a crossbow and a sonic screwdriver." He paused, frowning in thought. "Just need to think up a plan."

Buffy pondered this a moment. Then she shrugged. "Well, I've done this before. We just have to get the uranium power core out from Adam's..." She noticed the bleak expression on the Doctor's face. She slumped. "There's no uranium power core, this time, is there?"

"39th century nanoforms implanted across his entire body, using fusion power to generate the constant flow of electrical current," said the Doctor. "Main form of power around here. Hence the cheese! With the anti-radiation drugs. Very important, anti-radiation drugs. Particularly at this point in history."

Buffy took the hint, and munched on the cheese slice, slowly, as she thought. (It did kind of taste weird for cheese.) Then, Buffy's eyes lit up. "Oh, I know! We could do that—"

"Absolutely not," the Doctor interrupted.

"You didn't even know what I was going to say!" Buffy protested.

"You were going to propose merging the regenerations together using a dose of artron energy," the Doctor rambled off, "the exact same way you defeated Adam the last time you met him."

"How did you know I—?"

"Problem is, it's incredibly dangerous," the Doctor continued. "I had ten regenerations at the time, and it very nearly killed me. You pulled together every Slayer throughout human history up until the year 2000, and enjoined them together. Inside you." He waggled his finger at her. "And you were very, _very_ lucky you didn't do something absolutely catastrophic, Elizabeth!"

But Buffy could see that twinkle in his eye that meant that he was kind of sad he hadn't gotten to see it in person. Because that would have been exciting and interesting and different!

"This incarnation of yours might actually be more of a trouble magnet than Mr. Pinstripe Suit," said Buffy. "And that's saying something."

"Which means," the Doctor cut in, quickly, before she could divert him from his topic, "we're not trying any more regenerational merging. And certainly not at this point in history. Time-streams are tangled enough as it is."

"Anything else you got?" Buffy demanded. "Because we tried pretty much everything, back home, and this was the only way to kill this Adam guy. And — in case you've forgotten — there are tons of Adam guys out there, right now."

The Doctor grinned at her. And Buffy had a sinking feeling in her chest.

"Oh, no," said Buffy. "You've got a plan, don't you?"

The Doctor grinned even wider.


	7. Chapter 7

"Just... out of curiosity," said Buffy, as she followed the Doctor out of their tent. "Do you only ever come up with plans as a way of hinting to me that you'd like _me_ to make up the _actual_ plan?"

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, twirling around to face her. "It's a brilliant plan!"

"It's very you," Buffy said.

"As I said," said the Doctor, adjusting his bow tie. "Brilliant, ingenious, and all-around incredible."

"By which I mean that it makes no sense, is doomed to failure, and — even if it did work — would leave us in the middle of super-duper danger with nothing to do next," Buffy pointed out.

"There is something to do next!" the Doctor insisted. "What I do next is think up another plan."

Buffy crossed her arms. "My plans actually work, you know."

"You've got a better idea?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah," said Buffy. "Or at least, I've got the start of one. I'm starting with scrapping the part of your plan where you die."

"I did not put that in there!" the Doctor insisted.

"In your 'brilliant' plan, you go onboard the Dalek ship," said Buffy. "In the middle of deep space. With no TARDIS. And no one to rescue you."

"To get Julie," the Doctor agreed.

"While, in the meantime," Buffy continued, "I stay behind. On Earth. Working with the Earth military to get Adam's army to use Earth's space ships to chase after you."

The Doctor bounced on his feet, hands clasped behind his back. "Exactly! Lure Adam off Earth and out to Lasky's Nebula! Human race is saved, Earth is saved, all our problems go away."

"You're entrusting your life," Buffy clarified, "to the Daleks and a bunch of military commandos from Earth. From the United States."

Like the military goons at the Initiative. Like the people that had tortured him. He was trusting _them_.

(He'd be better off trusting the Daleks.)

The Doctor's happy countenance dropped a hair. "Ah. Right. That... whole... thing with the Initiative... just happened for you." He draped an arm over Buffy's shoulder, and leaned into her. "This isn't going to be a problem, is it?" he whispered.

"No," Buffy lied. Or not lied, exactly, because she wasn't planning to follow the Doctor's plan, anyways. She squirmed out of his half-embrace. "What's a problem is that the Daleks are going to exterminate you. And even if they don't — there's no way Adam's just going to drop everything he's doing here so he can chase after you. That's insane!"

The Doctor winked at her.

"What are the Daleks doing way out in Lasky's Nebula, anyways?" Buffy demanded.

"Fighting IPSA, I presume," said the Doctor. He noticed the confusion on her face, and clarified, "Main fighting force of the Galactic Federation, at this time."

"IPSA," Buffy repeated. Another group of military commandoes. Great. "What's that stand for?"

"No idea," said the Doctor. "Probably 'Inter-Planetary' something. Inter-Planetary... Starfleet... Association or Alliance or Aardvark or something of that sort."

"Yeah, I'm guessing IPSA doesn't stand for Inter-Planetary Starfleet Aardvark," said Buffy. "Unless there's something about aardvarks I don't know."

"Not enough acronyms contain the word 'aardvark'," the Doctor reflected. "Someone should do something about that."

"So if this IPSA is basically the major fighting power," Buffy cut in, "then why have I seen no evidence of any reinforcements or help or anything from them? Because, I don't know if you noticed, but... Earth's getting its butt kicked, over here."

"Exactly my concern," said the Doctor, as he spun around and rushed into another tent. "General Gratewell, here, has informed me that IPSA's received Earth's distress signal, and sent nothing but good wishes."

"They've what?" Buffy cried, following him.

The moment Buffy entered, a tall man in an Earth Military Uniform sporting a mustache spun around and eyed her suspiciously.

"Who's this?" the man asked.

"My associate," said the Doctor. "Got a bit delayed in the Balhoonian spaceport — you know how the Balhoonians are. Her name's..."

"Buffy," Buffy said, just as the Doctor said, "Elizabeth."

The man gave Buffy a look that said he really didn't have time for these kinds of games.

"My name's Buffy Anne Summers," Buffy explained. She pointed at the Doctor. "He calls me Elizabeth." She pointed back at the man. "You're not allowed to."

The Doctor fished out his psychic paper, and handed it over to the man, who examined it, carefully. Buffy caught a glimpse of its text. _Grand Commander Buffy Anne Summers, overseer for the Galactic Federation General Safety Administration._

The man gave a grunt of amusement, as he handed the psychic paper back to the Doctor. "Should have guessed. A Korjensky kid. They're always a little odd." He then turned to Buffy, and saluted. "General Mark Gratewell of the 39th Earth Military Platoon." He hesitated, then gave the sigh of a man who'd been fighting a losing battle for far too long. "One of the last platoons left."

Buffy glanced over at the Doctor for hints about what a Korjensky kid might be, but the Doctor wasn't paying attention to their conversation anymore. He was fiddling with his sonic screwdriver in that way he always did when he was about to say something clever.

"General Gratewell," the Doctor said. "You mentioned, earlier, that IPSA sent you a message of good will. I'd like to hear that message."

A momentary doubt flickered across Gratewell's face, but he seemed to decide that he had nothing to lose, and hid the doubt under a mask of army rigidness. He gave the Doctor a curt nod, and gestured for the two of them to follow him.

They were brought over to a large group of machinery, which lit up the air with holograms and graphics and lights that glowed with colors Buffy didn't even know existed. The General manipulated a few things on the display, and then IPSA's message came through.

"People of Earth," came the human-sounding voice. "We regret to inform you that we must refuse your request for reinforcements, as our own battle is far greater and more important." A pause. "Best wishes to you all."

Then the message cut out.

"Okay, I'm not liking IPSA so much," said Buffy. "Aardvark or no."

The Doctor just seemed curious, tapping his sonic screwdriver against his lips. "What frequency did that come in on?"

"737-alpha-29," said Gratewell.

The Doctor's face morphed into sudden surprise. "What, really?"

"Of course," said Gratewell. "It did come from Lasky's Nebula, after all."

The Doctor twirled his sonic screwdriver in his hands, thinking a moment. Then, in a burst of movement, the Doctor dove at the machinery, buzzing it with his sonic, a whirr of images and text surging through the air in front of them as he fiddled.

Gratewell, completely taken aback, looked as if he were about to jump at the Doctor and tear him away from the machinery, but before he had the chance, the Doctor grinned and shouted, "Aha!"

"What?" asked Gratewell.

"He's going to tell you that that transmission didn't come from IPSA," Buffy explained to Gratewell.

"This transmission," the Doctor announced, with a flourish, turning to Gratewell and Buffy, "didn't come from..." He trailed off, his smile tumbling off his face. He stared at Buffy, disappointment flooding his features. "How did you know that?"

How had she known? Easy. The Doctor had had his suspicious face on, he'd been surprised that the transmission had come from Lasky's Nebula, and there were two super advanced bio-mechanical armies that didn't want the competent Earth defenses rushing to the rescue.

"Because I'm a Grand Commander," Buffy told the Doctor, pointedly. "Remember?"

"I don't understand," said Gratewell. "The frequency is clearly the one used by IPSA. The transmission came from Lasky's Nebula. It had to be—"

"You've been sending out transmissions for help for a while, now, haven't you, General Gratewell?" the Doctor asked. "I noticed that even though Carflodashians have a distinct advantage in this war, you have very few on hand. Only the ones already living on Earth at the time that Adam first struck, I suspect. You've been getting these sorts of responses a lot, haven't you?"

"The... the... other planets in the Galactic Federation are trying to come to our aid!" said Gratewell. "But these things take time. What with the price of trisilicate what it is, you can't just ship an army overnight."

"Trisilicate?" Buffy asked the Doctor, in a whisper.

"Starship fuel," the Doctor whispered back. He then turned back to Gratewell, speaking in his normal voice. "Mars is right next door, though. That's just a short hop — barely any trisilicate at all. But I'm guessing you've heard nothing at all from the Ice Warriors."

Gratewell said nothing.

"Your transmissions," the Doctor continued, advancing towards Gratewell with real sympathy in his eyes, "haven't left this planet, General Gratewell. Your security systems have all been breached. The truth is, no one is coming to save you, because no one knows that you're in danger."

"IPSA knows that we're in danger!" Gratewell insisted. "The transmission you just heard proves that—"

"It was Adam," said Buffy. "Or... you know. Female Adam. Adametta."

Gratewell didn't say anything.

"Your systems have been compromised," said the Doctor. "Either by Adam, or by the Daleks. Or both. You've been sealed off from the rest of the Galactic Federation, and unless you find some way to break the jam, every single person on this planet is going to die."

"And just how would you go about doing that?" Gratewell demanded. "We have carefully encrypted lines to Lasky's Nebula. We can't simply—"

"Well, for a start," said the Doctor, "I'd like to see your teleporter."

Buffy glared at him. "You're really going through with this?"

The Doctor grinned, and winked at her.

"It's in the tent over from us," said Gratewell. "But... it's a short range teleporter. You can't possibly get off planet with it."

"Yeah, I'm guessing that's not a problem for the Doctor," said Buffy. She turned on him. "But I still really hate this plan."

Gratewell seemed thoroughly perplexed. "Plan?"

"Saving the Earth, General Gratewell!" said the Doctor, clapping him on the back. "And, trust me, the two of us are very, very good at it." He spun the General around to face Buffy. "Just follow everything she says, and the human race will be right as rain!"

Gratewell hesitated.

"General Gratewell," said the Doctor, in a low but serious voice, "trust me. Trust her. I promise, if we all work together, we can and will save this planet."

Gratewell studied the Doctor, carefully, and a little speck of the Doctor's hope seemed to catch in the General's eyes. He glanced back at Buffy, and gave her a sharp salute.

Apparently, Buffy was now in charge.

The Doctor grinned at Gratewell, and then marched forwards towards the teleporter. Buffy scurried after him, her eyes sharp and biting.

"Doctor, if you die," Buffy hissed, "I promise I'll hold nightly séances and bug the hell out of you for the rest of eternity."

The Doctor beamed. "I'd expect nothing less."


	8. Chapter 8

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

"Never knew there was a university in Sunnydale," said Amy, as she used a bobby-pin to try to pick the lock to Professor Walsh's office. "Until I started travelling with the Doctor."

"I didn't even know Sunnydale existed," Rory replied, from where he was standing watch. "Or that vampires were real. And weren't always fish from outer space."

"You remember Jessica, from school?" Amy asked Rory.

"The one who went to UC Berkeley?"

"She applied to all the California schools," said Amy, squinting as if it would help her to jostle the lock exactly right. "And guess which one never came up?"

"Maybe this school gets shut down by 2007," said Rory. He considered. "Or... knowing the Doctor... blown up."

Amy gave a grunt of frustration, as she jostled the bobby-pin again. "This looks a lot easier in the movies, you know."

"Well, maybe if you..." Rory drifted off, as his eyes widened, and he backed towards Amy. "Amy! Someone's coming!"

Amy jumped to her feet, and hid the bobby-pin behind her back, as a tall, older woman with short cropped blond hair and a tan sweater walked towards the office. She gave Amy and Rory only a cursory glance, as she fumbled with her keys.

"If you're here for the reading assignment, you should have been in class," said the woman who must be Professor Walsh. "I'm not the kind of professor that just lets you skip all the lectures, roll in for the final exam, and still manage to wind up acing the course."

"We... we aren't..." Rory started.

"Actually, we're here to talk to you," Amy cut in. "We were thinking about taking your class next semester and just... wanted to know what you were like."

Professor Walsh opened her office, and flipped on the lights. "I'll tell you what I tell everyone who takes my class. I run a hard class, I assign a lot of work, I talk fast and I expect you to keep up. If you don't want to put in the effort, I'd recommend skipping Intro to Psychology and not wasting my time."

Amy and Rory looked at one another, again, then followed Professor Walsh into her office.

"What sort of... research do you do?" asked Amy. "I mean, I've always been sort of a... psychology nut."

Professor Walsh sat down at her desk, and gave Amy a hard gaze. "If you'd read my Treatise on Dietrich's Work, you would know that I specialize mainly in psychological conditioning."

"Conditioning of what?" asked Amy, bouncing on her toes and trying to sneak a peek at whatever Walsh was working on. "Rats? Mice? Maybe... people?"

"Graduate students, mainly," answered Professor Walsh, without looking up at them. "They'll do anything for a letter of recommendation, you know."

It took Amy and Rory a moment to realize that this was supposed to be a joke. They gave a laugh that had come a little too late and a little too unconvincingly.

Their forced laughter was interrupted by a tall, well-built blond man with blue eyes, sticking his head into the office. "Professor Walsh, urgent matter concerning..." He flicked his eyes over to Amy and Rory, "...grading term papers."

Professor Walsh put the papers she was working on aside, and ushered Amy and Rory out of her office. "If you have any further questions concerning my research, my publications are on file at the library. Now, if you'll excuse me." She turned, and locked the office door behind her.

Amy and Rory just stared as Professor Walsh and the blond man disappeared down the corridor, and eventually left their line of sight.

"That..." said Rory, pointing. "That was..."

"Riley Finn," Amy confirmed.

"The one with all the guns who really hates the Doctor," Rory added.

Amy frowned, reflecting over what she knew about him. "You know, he always struck me as being more the military sort," she said. "I can't see him grading term papers and being an academic."

"Well, maybe he met a girl who got him interested in something a little different," said Rory. "I know... people like that." He shifted on his feet, his eyes fixed on Amy. "For the right girl."

"Or," said Amy, creeping forwards, "maybe this is all a conspiracy, and Professor Walsh is actually taking part in some secret military experiment dealing with human psychological conditioning!" She gave a large grin, and her eyes twinkled in excitement.

Rory sighed. "You don't think... just this once... there _isn't_ a conspiracy?"

"Or maybe," Amy continued, "Professor Walsh is actually an alien, doing illegal experiments on humans, and the Doctor wants us to get information on these experiments in the past because he's facing the repercussions in the future."

"Or maybe," Rory volunteered, "the Doctor didn't want to come back here and do the research himself, because Riley Finn hates him and probably wants to kill him."

Amy shot Rory a 'you've got to be kidding' look. "If the Doctor avoided everyone in the universe that wanted to kill him, he'd never go anywhere."

Rory had to concede that this was probably true.

"But we can both agree that while Riley Finn is involved, we should make sure that no Doctors, past or future, get sucked into this," Rory added. "Especially... not if Riley is very well armed."

Amy gave a small smile. "Back to playing Keep-Well-Armed-Riley-Away-From-The-Doctor? That's one of our favorites."

"And one of the games we seem to play all the time," Rory muttered. He shrugged. "Where to, now?"

"Following them, of course!" Amy said, in a whisper. "You don't think they're really going to grade term papers?"

"You know, we could just go to the library like she suggested," Rory offered.

Amy gave him a sharp look.

Rory raised up his hands. "All right! All right! We'll go!"

... ... ...

"I've heard about this!" said Buffy, as they passed the next oozing patch of licorice. "It's this thing, in Giles' books! The Trio of Hell!"

The Doctor ran a hand through his spiky brown hair, tucking his other hand into his brown pinstripe pocket to get his brainy specs. Shoving said brainy-specs on his nose, he bent down to examine the next licorice puddle.

No, not the puddle.

The shoe print.

The Doctor recognized the patterns evident in the print. Whoever made this shoe print had been wearing a TOMS shoe.

A shoe that would not be manufactured for another 7 years.

The Doctor shook his head in irritation. Before this particular time, he had actually been rather fond of Buffy's game of making up horribly dangerous monsters to pretend to fight off. Mainly because it proved to him, over and over again, just how brilliant she was.

Buffy always had this clever way of making sure that her 'clues' tingled at enough of his senses to make him feel a bit uneasy. Any information he'd dropped, while he was hunting down real monsters alongside her, she managed to incorporate into her little scenarios.

A carefully programmed heat-lamp, to give the illusion of someone with real body heat having just been there.

A dehumidifier to get exactly the right nip in the air for a demonic summoning.

And that time she'd remembered that Felchinoroks always left a slightly burnt apple tang in the air — a singed apple pie left nearby!

Ingenious. Brilliant. And... well, Buffy just kept doing it, every time he ran into her during the summer of 1999. Kept making up monsters in the desperate hope that it'd get him to stay a bit longer.

And after all the effort she'd put in... he didn't have the heart to say no.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, and scanned the licorice blob. Course, none of that was true, this time round. Because this time, Buffy had stumbled on something else. Something big. Something the Doctor didn't think he was going to like very much.

"I mean, the Trio of Hell's really bad, isn't it?" asked Buffy. "There's three of them. The Demon of Atrozine, the Demon of Tchinolothica, and the Singing Sister. And... the book said that together, they could be completely destructive. Like, country of Belgium goes whoosh kind of destructive."

The Doctor had thought it was just one time traveler he was dealing with, at first. But he was starting to notice — in every licorice puddle that featured the TOMS shoe print — a second set of footprints beside it. A reoccurring set of footprints.

"Trio of Hell," he muttered. He straightened, tucking the sonic back into his pocket. "Duo of Hell, I'd say."

Buffy paused. "Huh?"

The Doctor didn't answer. No point, really. No use troubling her, not when she was having fun. He pointed in the direction the footprints were heading. "That-a-way, then. Allons-y!"

* * *

The Assembled Association of the Greater United States, Earth, 3847

"You want us to do _what_?" Pitrarca demanded of Buffy.

"Colonel Lopinarf," Gratewell scolded her, "you will show the Grand Commander the respect her rank deserves!"

"Rank?" Pitrarca cried. "The Earth is on its knees, fighting for its very survival, and you're worried about rank? I'm worried about saving this planet and every person on its surface! That's _my_ primary objective!"

"Pitrarca is right," Kimpton agreed. He turned to Buffy. "With all due respect, Ma'am, what you're suggesting is suicidal, irresponsible, and insane. It's dooming this planet, it's putting the rest of the Galactic Federation at risk, and it might greatly exacerbate the situation out in Lasky's Nebula."

"I'm the Grand Commander," Buffy said. "You have to do what I say. I've come up with a plan, and you have to carry it out."

"You want the Earth Military to stand down and do nothing," Kimpton clarified, "while you single-handedly defend our space fleet from Adam's entire army?"

"Yes."

"You're going to get yourself killed!" Pitrarca shouted. "Adam will take the space fleet, and the entire rest of the Galactic Federation will be at risk! Can't you see that?"

"Lopinarf!" Gratewell scolded, but the uncertainty and skepticism had seeped into his voice as well.

"You have an army at your disposal," Kimpton told Buffy. "An army determined to defend this planet, no matter what the cost. There must be something we can do to help you."

Buffy narrowed her eyes at the Earth military. The descendents of those Initiative soldiers who'd let the Doctor get tortured. The Initiative's legacy. "I don't need your help."

Buffy's distrust slithered through the air, and every person in the room picked up on it. Every person seemed to tense, a little, their eyes growing just that much more suspicious, their posture that much more defensive.

"Your troops had their chance," said Buffy. "They lost. Now it's my turn."

Gratewell's face grew stony. "Grand Commander," he said, "every soldier under my command is fully prepared to fight for this planet. Every human being, every Carflodashian, every Balhoonian and Draconian and Trixiatavor. I believe in them."

Buffy didn't. And she never would.

"How do we even know this so-called 'Grand Commander' is even from the Galactic Federation?" Pitrarca asked.

"Her qualifications are genuine," Gratewell replied. "She is who she says she is."

"If you ask me, she's way too interested in IPSA to just be a Grand Commander from the Galactic Federation," Pitrarca said. "Even if the qualifications all check out, she could still be a Dalek Replicant!"

Gratewell hesitated, then nodded at Pitrarca. "Give her the genetic scan," he commanded.

"What? No — wait!" Buffy cried, as her hands were secured behind her back, and Kimpton and Pitrarca led her towards another bank of machinery.

They forced her to lie on the floor, Kimpton and Pitrarca holding her down, as Gratewell began to manipulate through a series of projections in the air, and lights began beeping across her body.

Buffy couldn't decide whether to struggle or just let them do what they wanted. The Doctor said it was really important that no one know she was a Slayer. Which meant no Slayer strength — so struggling would do her no good in terms of escape. And if she struggled, then that might be proving to them that she really was a Dalek spy or whatever.

But... if they discovered that she wasn't actually from the Galactic Federation or this time period, they'd probably think she was a spy, too.

Okay, keep calm, Buffy. Deal with that problem when you get to it.

"Let her go," said Gratewell, examining the data from the scanner. "She's clean." He paused, frowning. "One of the purest human genetic traces I've seen in quite a while."

"That in itself could be suspicious, sir," Pitrarca pointed out. "If the Daleks have discovered some way to create better clones of our top officials that our scanners can't detect..."

Oh, so that's what they meant by Dalek Replicants. Clones of top officials — military and governmental — that appeared to be themselves, but actually did what the Daleks wanted, instead. Yeah, okay, Buffy could see how these Earth guys would be kind of suspicious.

"I'm really, really not a Dalek," Buffy promised them. "You can tell because I don't have an overwhelming desire to kill the Doctor."

"If her qualifications check out, and the scans show she is not a replicant, then we are obliged to accept her authority and follow her orders," Gratewell told Pitrarca. "She outranks us."

Pitrarca scowled, but she and Kimpton loosened their grip, allowing Buffy to get back to her feet.

"Great," said Buffy. "Now. Earth Military needs to retreat, so I can handle this on my own."

Kimpton turned to Buffy. "With all due respect, Grand Commander," he said, "the troops will never agree to simply sit back and let the Earth get destroyed. They won't stand for this sort of thing."

"I'm not going to let the Earth get destroyed!" Buffy insisted. "I'm trying to save it!"

"Then why won't you let us help you?" Pitrarca demanded. "What's with the secrecy and mistrust? This is _our_ planet! We have a right to fight to protect it!"

Gratewell stepped forwards. "Grand Commander," he interposed. "Colonel Kimpton is right. If you do what you're proposing, you'll lose the loyalty of the troops. They will disperse, form independent militia groups to defend the Earth themselves, and any semblance of order or strategy will disappear from our attack."

"Look, I know what I'm doing! This is my job, okay?" Buffy snapped. "I fight off the forces of darkness. That's my duty, my destiny, and my life. I'm not about to let—"

"And our job is to defend this planet!" Gratewell insisted. "This is our home, Grand Commander. We are prepared to protect it to the last man. We will not stand down and do nothing while you get yourself butchered!"

"Hang on," Pitrarca said, with a frown. She eyed Buffy up and down. "Your duty is to... fight against the forces of darkness?"

Buffy hesitated. Had she just said something wrong? "Yeah," she said.

"She's a Slayer?" Kimpton cried.

Buffy blinked, as all suspicion and hostility left the faces around her, and they all seemed to regard her as... okay, kind of like superwoman, actually. "Yeah," she said. "And... I guess you guys all know what that is."

Trust the Doctor to tell her to keep her identity a secret and actually be _wrong_.

"We should have worked it out right away," said Pitrarca. "We all said she was Korjensky! She wasn't born there, she's being trained there! You know how many of them change their names to something more inspiring."

"Listen," said Gratewell, "Grand Commander Sompters—"

"It's Summers," Buffy corrected. "Buffy Summers."

"—we didn't mean any offense," said Gratewell. "Really, we didn't. Earth Military fully acknowledges the Slayer Institution as an accredited alien peacekeeping taskforce, whose authority is recognized by the Shadow Proclamation. We have every confidence in Korjensky's strategies and military knowledge."

Buffy stared at them. The 'Slayer' was common knowledge in the future? No need for secret identities or anything? Weird.

"And we're so sorry about Deborah Raykins," said Pitrarca.

Deborah Raykins. Right, okay. That must have been the last Slayer. Got it. So Deborah Raykins died going up against Adam, which meant that everyone on Earth was sitting around waiting for the new Slayer. Which is why they were all super excited to see Buffy, because they thought she was Deborah Raykins' replacement.

Buffy could go with that.

(What the hell was Korjensky, anyways?)

"Okay," said Buffy. "So... you guys are all okay with my plan, now?"

"Korjensky tactics are well known on Earth," Gratewell replied. "The Earth military will be fully prepared to stand down and appear to do nothing as you carry out your plan. We will prepare and await further orders, so you can use us as a second line of defense when the time arises." He took out a small, clear, plastic looking cube out of his pocket. "I'll just need to take care of some legal technicalities, first." He pinched the side of the cube, which unfolded in his palm until it looked like a seamless sheet of thin glass. "As is protocol."

Buffy hesitated. "I'm kind of... new to this whole Slayer thing," she said. "Is this just a signing type deal, or do I—?"

"Just place your thumb on the reader," Pitrarca said. "The machine will do the rest."

Buffy smothered a grimace behind an air of complete confidence, and put her thumb down on the glass-looking sheet. It tingled a little, and felt warm and kind of... wiggly. But beneath her skin. The glass-looking sheet pinged, and Gratewell took it away.

"The sineyic-detector confirms Slayer genetic material is present beneath the human DNA strands," Gratewell said, after looking over the device in minute detail as if it _didn't_ just look like a sheet of glass with nothing on it. Which, to Buffy, it did. "She is certainly a Slayer."

"Sineyic-detector?" Buffy asked. She gave a small smile. "Okay, that's pretty cool."

From behind her, a soldier — human, it looked like — burst into the tent, breathless and excited. "General, sir!" the soldier reported. "The communications blockade! We've found a way around it!"

"A secure line?" Gratewell demanded.

"A one-way connection," the soldier admitted. "There's some interference pattern that prevents our _receiving_ off-world communications. But we can _send_ them. And on a frequency we believe is still fairly secure, all things considered."

Gratewell, Pitrarca, and Kimpton all looked at one another, a spark of hope appearing in faces that had abandoned the emotion a long time ago.

"We can send for reinforcements from Carflodash!" Pitrarca said.

"Or send out an SOS to our other allies," Kimpton added.

Gratewell nodded. "Or even just warn them about the danger. Instruct them to place this planet under military quarantine, just in case Adam's army does gain access to the space ports."

But Buffy's mind was already racing with possibilities. They could communicate with the outside world. They could communicate with other worlds, other people, with... Lasky's Nebula.

With IPSA.

Yes, IPSA were also military commandoes, but they weren't Daleks, and they weren't US Military Initiative descendents. IPSA was fighting the Daleks, and the Doctor also fought the Daleks. Which meant that maybe... just maybe...

"No," Buffy told the others. "We're not doing that." She turned to the soldier that had just entered the tent. "Open the communications channel. I need to send a few messages to Lasky's Nebula." She crossed her arms. "It's time to save the Doctor's life."


	9. Chapter 9

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

The Doctor appeared on the Dalek space ship just as he'd predicted. He'd programmed the teleporter to self-destruct after he used it, which meant that no one would be following him. And if Buffy could manage to carry out her side of the plan, this would all work out in their favor.

The Doctor heard the heavy thump of Dalek machinery in the distance, and tried to make his way, quietly as he could, towards it. He was fairly surprised that the Daleks hadn't detected his teleport by now. They usually could tell things like that.

Suddenly, the door hatches nearby thudded around him, securing shut with a deadbolt seal. Spoke too soon. The Doctor's eyes scanned the walls for some sort of camera or recording equipment monitoring him.

Sure enough. Upper right corner.

The Doctor gave it a smile and a wave. "Hello! Heard you were out here round about Lasky's Nebula, and thought I'd just pop by and see what you were up to. How've you been?"

Yes, they'd certainly identified him, now. He could hear the alarms echoing in the nearby corridors. If he could just think up some way to get out of this room...

"Should have known you were the ones who locked me up in the Initiative," said the Doctor. "Should have worked it out last time we met. After all, it was obvious that the Dalek Supreme was working to an entirely different agenda than the Dalek temporal team."

Silence.

The Doctor slipped the sonic out of his pocket, and buzzed it against the doors. Deadlock sealed. Of course.

"Calibration test, you said," said the Doctor to the camera. "Calibration test indeed! You weren't calibrating the Fountain and Genetic Disintegrator. You were calibrating _me_. My reactions. Trying to work out exactly how much information Adam needed to even out the sides."

Silence greeted his words, although the Doctor could hear Dalek shouting from outside the room that comprised his prison cell.

"I'll keep this simple," said the Doctor, trying to override the controls by reprogramming the ship's computer matrix, using a remote terminal in the wall. "My friend. Julie Parsoner. Give her back, alive and unharmed, and I might just let you go with a warning. Understand?"

Once again, no answer.

The Doctor gave up the override as fruitless, and began pacing through the room, trying to unearth something he could use amongst the crates of junk. Well, not junk, exactly. Dalek munitions, looked like. Very powerful ones, powerful enough to destroy entire space ships. Which wouldn't do him much good, here, unless he wanted to breach the hull and be sucked into space.

The Doctor eventually gave up looking for some way to get himself out of the room, and sat down on one of the crates. The Daleks would come in, sooner or later, so they could exterminate him. That was what Daleks did, after all. And when they did that, the Doctor would think up a new plan to weasel out of this.

But as the Doctor waited, he began to wonder if maybe the Daleks had forgotten about him. Even the alarm systems had cut out, and all that the Doctor could hear beyond the walls was the occasional muffled shouting of Dalek commands.

"Come on! Don't make me die of boredom!" the Doctor told the camera. "I'm your number one enemy! Exterminate me!"

But still, nothing.

The Doctor fiddled with his sonic, until a sudden judder of the ship sent him crashing onto the floor. He got up, and the ship shook once more, the Doctor grabbing at a crate to keep himself upright.

"IPSA," the Doctor muttered.

And that was very, very bad for him, because when he'd attempted to hack the door mechanisms, earlier, the Doctor had discovered enough information from the Daleks' computer databanks to know that there was nothing even remotely useful on board this particular Dalek ship. IPSA would probably try to blow the ship up, with him onboard.

The Doctor got to his feet, making his way to the remote terminal in the wall, straining to keep upright as the bombardment continued. He scanned his sonic across the terminal, trying to hack into the Dalek teleportation systems.

A heavy metallic clang sounded overhead. Followed by another. Then a whirring noise. The Doctor looked up. It sounded almost like... some sort of hull cutting mechanism.

The Doctor geared up his respiratory bypass, just in case.

A burst of increased noise followed the clangs — the grating metallic voices of Daleks, congregating just outside his cell. The thud of deadlocks releasing echoed through the air, as the door began to open.

Oh, dear.

The Doctor adjusted his sonic and buzzed at the remote terminal again, hoping to accelerate the process. But Dalek programming was a pain to override, and the Daleks were already pouring inside the room.

An odd suction sound began resonating through the air just above his head. He glanced up at the ceiling.

Was he being... rescued? But by whom? Who would want to? And who would even know he was here, in the first place?

The Daleks surrounded the Doctor on all sides, the blue glint of their eyestalks boring into him with a biting, bitter malevolence.

"There you are!" the Doctor said, turning away from the remote terminal in the wall and facing the Daleks. "Now. About my friend. Julie. I want her—"

"SILENCE!" the Daleks shouted at him. "YOU ARE THE DOCTOR! YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS!"

" _An_ enemy of the Daleks?" the Doctor cried. "I'm _the_ enemy of the Daleks! Enemy number one!"

"SILENCE! SILENCE!" the Daleks screamed.

"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR!" shouted another set of Daleks to his left. "YOU WILL BE EXTERMIN—"

That was when the entire ship shook once more, and the Doctor felt himself falling — upwards — as the metal hull above his head peeled away to reveal two humans crouching just outside the ship, protected from the vacuum of space by a thick, red translucent bubble. Humans wearing army uniforms, all sporting a simple geometric logo.

"Unidentified hostage!" one of the humans shouted — a woman with thick amber hair and dark eyes. "Humanoid, probably human. Negative on the Code 5."

The Doctor surged towards the hole in the ceiling of the ship.

"Readings say she should be on board!" the other human — hazel eyes and ponytailed blond hair — shouted back, as the two reached into the ship and grabbed the Doctor by his arms, hauling him up.

"EXTERMINATE!" the Daleks screamed, beneath the Doctor.

They all fired, in unison, but missed.

The two women scrambled to pull the Doctor through the breach and out of the way, and only just managed to do it in time to avoid the second round of Dalek laser beams.

"Seal the bubble!" shouted the amber-haired woman. "Move it out!"

"Our Code 5!" the blond one protested.

"We'll get her later!" said the amber-haired woman. "Move it out!"

"Freddy's gonna kill us for this," the blond one muttered.

And as the Daleks began to fly towards the hull breach, the two women tinkered with some controls in the side of the red translucent sealant, sealing the three of them inside a completely airtight spherical bubble. With the press of a button and a "pop!", the bubble burst away from where it had been stuck to the Dalek ship, and shot into space.

"Whoo-hoo!" the amber-haired woman shouted, as the explosive decompression from their exit sent the Daleks pouring out of the hull breach.

"That won't stop them," said the Doctor. "Their casing can survive deep space just as easily as a pressurized ship." He slipped out the sonic screwdriver, and buzzed it at the controls in the woman's hands.

The amber-haired woman yanked the controls away. "Hey, what the hell are you—?"

"Try it!" the Doctor urged.

The amber-haired woman looked at him suspiciously, but did as she was told. The bubble suddenly zipped at ten times the speed it was travelling before, zooming out of the way of the Dalek lasers and far away from the Dalek ship.

"Hey, all right!" said the amber-haired woman, grinning. "This is more like it!"

The Doctor grinned back, and twirled the sonic in his hands. "Now, then," he said. "I'm the..."

They suddenly spun as they were struck on the side, the filmy surface of the bubble growing thinner and thinner.

The blond woman swore, loudly.

"You don't think you could do that buzzy thing again, mister?" the amber-haired woman asked, waving the controls at him.

The Doctor adjusted the screwdriver, then buzzed again at the controls. "How much farther to your ship?"

"Just another hundred thousand miles," said the blond woman.

They zoomed through the emptiness of space, and the Doctor could see them approaching the spacial distortion of a sloppily cloaked space ship, the blast of Dalek laser fire still streaking past their rapidly dissolving bubble.

"Going to need a Spocky on this!" shouted the amber-haired woman, into her wrist-com. "We're not going to—"

The next thing the Doctor knew, he was sitting inside a 39th century human space ship, a Proto-Trinsilaminum Class D (if he was remembering his starships correctly) on a teleportation platform in a sealable arrival bay.

"—make it," the amber-haired woman continued, a smile igniting on her face. She jumped to her feet. "Ha! Nice one, Viv!"

"Need a Spocky?" the Doctor asked, climbing to his feet.

"Yeah, you know," said the amber-haired woman. "Like in Star Trek? 'Beam me up, Spocky?'"

"Ah, right, 39th century," the Doctor muttered. "Linguistic errors. Cultural decay. That sort of thing." He beamed, and offered her a hand. "I never did thank you for saving my life. I'm the Doctor, by the way."

"Ashley Cralmodath," said the amber-haired woman, shaking his hand.

"And I'm Jordan Maloparsh," offered the blond, with a wave, as she stood up.

"Basically, we're the two big Buster-Outers around here," said Ashley.

"No," said Jordan, as they stepped off the pad and walked towards the door. "We're the Mega Jailbreakers! That's a way better name!"

"And you're IPSA, then?" asked the Doctor, following the two women.

"Who else were you expecting out in Lasky's Nebula?" asked Jordan. "The Moxx of Balhoon?" She laughed. "Yeah, we're IPSA. Don't worry. How'd you manage to wind up on a Dalek ship, anyways?"

"Long story," the Doctor said. "And one I'd really rather not get into at the moment." He adjusted his jacket. "Actually, I'm rather surprised you trust me."

"Oh, we don't," said Ashley, placing her thumb on the door-scanner. "We're still planning to give you the scans and bio-exams. That's just standard procedure. But we can take down your average Dalek Replicant pretty easily, so we're not worried or anything."

"Ah," said the Doctor. "I see." And he was also guessing that the species 'Time Lord' was probably not one of the ones found in their database. Which meant that their Dalek Replicant scan would give them an unknown reading, which would be followed by suspicions, accusations, and, the Doctor was guessing, the waving of loaded firearms. And not even his psychic paper would be able to bail him out of that. "Right. I don't suppose I might be able to explain..."

The door hissed open, revealing a gleaming white control room, filled with a myriad of women, all young and physically fit, and all human-looking, attired in the same IPSA uniform as Jordan and Ashley. The Doctor stopped in his tracks, staring out at the group in front of him.

Ashley and Jordan strolled into the room, completely at ease.

"We're going to need a full scan and bio-exam for unknown civi pronto!" said Ashley, as she went over to a bank of equipment and began inputting data. "Claims to be a doctor. Any reports of a medic being sent over from Korjensky?"

A group of women began answering her questions, rushing around to arrange everything that Ashley had requested.

On the other side of the room, Jordan was being pestered with women asking her who the Doctor was and did they find the Code 5, and what was going on.

"Couldn't find her," Jordan told them. She dialed up a dialogue box in the air, and the face of a purple-haired young woman popped up in the center of the room. "Vivian? Tell Freddy we're going to need another scan for the Code 5. Couldn't locate her."

"Putting in request now," said Vivian, typing. "Might take a while, though. Officer Marya's onboard, 'cost-analyzing' our defense systems."

"Freddy must be thrilled about that."

"Oh, yeah," said Vivian, still typing. "If Korjensky's penny-pinching puts our lives at risk one more time, I think Freddy might actually tear Officer Marya apart." She glanced over at the Doctor. "Who's that?"

"Medic," said Jordan. "Probably from Korjensky. Ashley's working on the analysis now."

One of the women, with close-cropped brown hair and deep blue eyes, noticed that the Doctor hadn't moved from where he'd stopped, just inside the teleport bay. She strolled over.

"Wendy Drascopol," she told the Doctor, offering him her hand. "Welcome to Vanquisher-17 of the IPSA fleet."

"IPSA," the Doctor repeated, not taking her hand. " _You're_ IPSA."

"That's right," said Wendy, with a kind smile. She picked up his hand from his side, and shook it, using the handshake to lead him, gently but firmly, into the control room.

All women. All young, physically fit, a bit too strong for women of this time period. Whose sensors had picked him up. And were from Korjensky.

"I'm guessing that means the S doesn't stand for Starfleet?" the Doctor asked.

Wendy gave him a look like he was insane. "IPSA," she said. "The Inter-Planetary Slayer Alliance."

"Ah," said the Doctor. "I was afraid you'd say that."

(He'd known the Slayers would be around the Galactic Federation somewhere. He just hadn't thought they'd be right here. And he really, really should have guessed.)

"What's he got against Slayers?" asked another woman. She put her hands on her hips. "You think women can't fight? Cause let me tell you something, bud. The Ice Warriors call us the Slyxius Izkadra — the Silent Shadows. The Draconians call us the Felchinak Holdras — the Dark Terror of Space. The Daleks call us the Vretchip Cruptor — the Impenetrable Barrier. We've unified and protected this sector of the galaxy for the last 1,500 years, and we've been saving your world — Earth, from the look of you — for even longer than that. And, on a personal note, any one of us girls can kick your ass in 10 seconds flat. So if you've got a problem with the Slayer, you'd better keep your mouth shut!"

"Cool it, Trista," Wendy muttered. She gave the Doctor a half-shrug. "She's always like that."

"Yes. I see." The Doctor glanced around. "And... you lot have been the ones single-handedly fighting off the Daleks?"

"Damn straight!" said Trista.

The Doctor scratched his head, and gave a little cringe. "I think," he said, very quietly, "I might have underestimated Elizabeth's importance in all this."


	10. Chapter 10

The Assembled Association of the Greater United States, Earth, 3847

"Are you sure it's her?" Adam asked the army member who'd once been Deborah Raykins.

"Oh, I'm sure," said Deborah Raykins. "She's an unknown Slayer who just appeared on Earth, she matches all the physical descriptions, and she was defending the spaceports, single-handedly, using a wooden crossbow."

Adam considered all of this, his mechanical mind whirring through the possibilities. Buffy Summers. The one who'd killed him, 1800 years ago. "The Doctor must have brought her," he mused. "In the hopes that she could defeat me, yet again." He turned to face Deborah. "Have we caught her, yet?"

"Yes, Adam, sir," said Deborah. "She put up a fight, but I sent in some of our own converted Slayers, and they managed to take her down."

"Good," said Adam. He began pacing. He was so close to achieving his goals, now. But he had to play this right. If he messed up, during these crucial moments, he'd never gain the knowledge of time travel.

"Should we kill her?" asked Deborah.

"Oh, no," said Adam. He grinned, his eyes shining in anticipation. "Knowing the Doctor, I think this one's far more useful to us alive."

* * *

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

The entire ship shook, and a siren began to blare.

"Mauve alert!" the women shouted, and the Doctor watched as this squabbly, ragtag bunch of women suddenly transformed into full-scale battle mode, each manning positions around different sections of the room, working different controls and shouting commands at one another with military precision.

Metallic voices then began to grate throughout the hijacked loudspeaker systems of the ship.

"YOU WILL SURRENDER," the Dalek voice demanded. "OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Go to hell!" came the automatic response from every single human being on board that ship.

Then all the women began to shout their commands louder, their voices filling the air with ordered cacophony. Some darted across to different monitors and control panels, calling up information and then racing over to input it somewhere else. The room was strewn with motion and activity.

Well. Good time to slip out the back door, then, so to speak. Since that bio-scan was still coming up, and the moment IPSA got the results, the Doctor knew he'd be in quite a large bit of trouble.

Plus, he had to carry out his side of the plan. At least until he could work out what was really going on and create a new plan that matched his new information.

He plucked his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, and began to stumble through the rocking spaceship towards the door hatch to the outer corridor.

A hand grabbed his arm and yanked him backwards, flinging him into a nearby seat and taking his sonic screwdriver away from him. He glanced up to find Jordan giving him a sympathetic look.

"Sorry," she said. "Have to go through scans and bio-exams, first. Procedure."

"Right, yes, sorry," said the Doctor. "Only, you might be a little confused, seeing as I'm not actually—"

But he was cut off by a violent jolt as the ship was struck on its outer-hull, and the Slayers' voices all chorused together in a rising cacophony, reading out progress reports and systems analyses and that sort of thing. More motion and activity from Slayers zipping around the room. Shipboard communications displays popped up in the air and flashed away, too rapidly for a human mind to process.

These weren't normal humans, though. They were Slayers.

(The moment Buffy showed up, the Doctor was going to be in so much trouble.)

He tried, again, to make a dash for the exit, but Jordan had one hand on his shoulder, keeping him in the chair, and had tucked his sonic into her cleavage. Which was a very annoying hiding spot for women to use, seeing as it made it impossible for decent alien men to get it back without seeming like major perverts. Even though the item the Doctor wanted to retrieve was actually his to begin with.

Finally, an intense cheer surged through the women, followed by high-fives and excited whoops and jumps and victory-back-flips, as the space ship stilled once more.

"Sorry, again, just... Dalek stuff," Jordan told the Doctor, still restraining him to the chair with a single hand. She glanced back over her shoulder. "Hey, Ash! You got that bio-exam ready, yet?"

"Give me a break, here!" said Ashley. "I've been busy. You got a lock on our Code 5?"

"I asked Freddy to put in another scan," said Jordan. "No response so far."

"I don't like the idea of letting Code 5's go unanswered this long," said Ashley. "If she's still alive, I'd hate to think what the Daleks are doing to her."

"Uh, guys?" came a voice from behind them.

Everyone spun around. The door to the corridor was now open, and a younger-looking girl with braided brown hair stood in the doorway, a chunky silver device in her hands. She clutched the device, a little shyly. "Freddy said you wanted another Code 5 scan?"

"Yeah, we didn't find anyone where the scan detected," Ashley confirmed. "Just this medic. Is there any sign she's still alive, or...?"

The girl in the doorway bit her lip. "Okay, the thing is..." She pointed at the Doctor. "It's him. He's the Code 5."

For a moment, there was silence. Complete and utter silence, as everyone took this in. As they stared at the girl in the doorway, barely able to comprehend the words.

Oh, dear.

The Doctor automatically reached for his psychic paper, even though he knew it'd do him no good. With the threat of Dalek Replicants, these women wouldn't care one jot who he claimed to be. Just what his biology said he was.

The moment the Doctor began moving — even though it was just his arm — the Slayers noticed the motion and sprung into action, as if acting on instinct. Using a grace and swiftness the Doctor had rarely seen (in any species) before, the Slayers surrounded him, holding him down onto the chair, restraining his arms behind the chair-back, holding his legs and feet in place.

And they were very, very strong.

"Right," said the Doctor. "There wouldn't happen to be any way I could explain—"

"You've got it on the wrong setting!" said Ashley, running forwards towards the girl in the doorway, a little annoyed. "You have to set it on the middle one, remember, Laura?" She took the device from Laura's hands. "Like we discussed last time this sort of thing..." She trailed off, as she examined the device. Then she looked at the Doctor. "What?"

"There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this," the Doctor said. "That is, if a Code 5 means what I think it means."

"Ashley, if it's reading him as a Code 5, it's got to be a mistake," said Jordan. "I mean, he's... you know... a _he._ "

"If I could just interject—" the Doctor tried.

"The reading's definitely coming from him," Ashley said. "But it's weird-looking. It's still a Code 5 reading; it's just not a _normal_ Code 5 reading."

"You know what this means," Wendy told the others. "The Daleks have finally done it. They've finally managed to successfully create a Replicant Agent that picks up as a Code 5 on our scans."

"Which means he'd be able to hack into—" Jordan drifted off, her eyes going wide, as she glanced at the machinery scattered throughout the room. She snapped her head over to Trista. "Initiate full lock-down procedures!"

Trista smacked a mauve button on the control panel. Suddenly, the lights dimmed, the doors slammed shut (Laura being pulled inside just before she was crushed), all teleporters and control panels went offline, and a voice echoed through the air, announcing, "Lockdown initiated."

Ashley handed the silver device back to Laura and drew a gun out of her holster, leveling it right at the Doctor's head. Around the Doctor, nearly every other woman not holding him down did the same.

"You do realize that if you miss, you'll hit one of your friends securing me?" the Doctor pointed out to them.

"Good thing we're all good shots," said Ashley. "Now. Talk. Who are you?"

The Doctor tried to raise his hands, but they were still restrained behind him. "I'm the Doctor. As I said. And there is a very good explanation for why your scanners are picking me up." He hesitated. "That... you're... probably not going to believe, come to think of it."

"Try us," said Jordan.

"I'm an alien," said the Doctor, "and your Slayer line was created from my species."

Every woman in the room looked at one another, then burst out laughing.

"Thought as much," the Doctor muttered.

"Slayers are always human!" said Trista. "And they're always girls! There's nothing 'alien' about the Slayer. And there's nothing male about it, either."

"Well, actually, a very long time ago," the Doctor explained, "a group of rather nasty Shadow Men created the Slayer by infusing a girl named Sineya with—"

"Sineya's not a real person!" said Wendy, rolling her eyes. "She's just the girl we all see in our dreams. She's like... a computer interface icon representing a larger psychic network."

"Besides," said Ashley, "we know our own history, Mister, and that's not what happened. The Slayer wasn't created by men. It was created by a woman. One girl, in all the world, who battled back the forces of darkness. She vanquished evil from the face of the Earth, and then she created the Slayer."

"Ah," said the Doctor. "And this would be... when, exactly?"

"About 2,000 years ago," said Ashley.

"1,800," muttered Laura.

"Close enough!" Ashley snapped.

Oh, dear. The Doctor should have expected that. Buffy might no longer have been around in 2003, but time would have compensated for her loss. Toby would still be around causing mischief in that year, the Watcher's Council would still have been obliterated, and all the records of the Slayer from before 2003 would have been completely erased.

No wonder this lot had assumed their history began in the 21st century.

The Doctor gave a sheepish grin. "Would it help to mention that I happen to be good friends with the girl you claim founded your organization?"

The women around him scoffed.

"No, didn't think so," said the Doctor. "Since no one in this century seems to believe in the possibility of time travel. Ah! I know! I can prove I can travel through time! I've got a mobile, see?" He tried to fish it out of his pocket, but his hands were still restrained. "From the 21st century. In my pocket. Fully functional, original power source, none of its systems damaged by that nasty electromagnetic storm. Go on, check! Left pocket, right beside my identification."

But it seemed that the Doctor had spoken a bit hastily. Because now all the women were looking at one another with mounting suspicion.

"Time travel," Trista repeated.

"And we all know who has that kind of technology," said Ashley, charging up her gun. She gave him a hard, cold stare. "Daleks."

"I'm not a Dalek!" the Doctor protested. "You saw them trying to exterminate me!"

"They waited a pretty long time before they got around to trying," said Ashley. "And Daleks don't usually miss, either."

"They definitely don't miss by as much as they did with you," Jordan agreed.

"Ah, yes, good point. And you're right, they don't. Although I'm fairly certain they only let me go due to a number of rather important somethings that are going on behind your backs — or possibly not, since I haven't quite worked them all out, yet, and... there wouldn't be any way I could explain all this without a gun to my head?" the Doctor asked.

"Laura, check the species setting," said Jordan. "If he's really an alien, I want to know what kind."

"Time Lord," the Doctor supplied. Not that any of these women would have heard of that.

Laura flipped a few settings on the scanner, and pointed it at the Doctor. She examined the results. "Species unknown."

"Listen, I promise, I'm not a Dalek," said the Doctor. "One of their most hated enemies, in fact, and... you're not buying a word of this, are you?"

"'Species unknown' means you're a Dalek Replicant," said Jordan. "We've scanned every species out there, and no one else but us shows up as a Code 5."

"There's a reason for that, too," the Doctor said. "See, I'm the only Time Lord—"

A screen popped up in the air, revealing a green, scaly creature with red eyes, sharp fangs, and a thin green tongue. He hissed as he spoke, his voice echoing through the air like steam.

"What iss the ssituation?" the creature rasped.

The Doctor beamed at the screen. "What? Really? An Ice Lord?" He glanced at the other women nearby. "You have an Ice Lord serving onboard your starship?"

"Freddy, this guy's reading as a Code 5," Ashley informed the screen. "But he's no Code 5 we've ever seen. And he's not human."

"What iss he, then?" Freddy demanded.

"Freddy?" the Doctor asked the screen. "Your name is Freddy? That's not a nice Ice Lord name, now, is it?"

"Ssilence!" shouted Freddy. "I am Supreme Lord Fredslyr of the Erythraeum clan, and thesse are my warriorss."

"These are _your_ warriors?" the Doctor clarified.

"He's the Commander of our starship," said Jordan. "What of it?"

Nothing, really. The Doctor just hadn't realized non-humans could climb that high in the Korjensky ranks by this point in history.

"Thesse Sslayerss are under my protection," Freddy warned the Doctor. "And if you sseek to harm them in any way, I sswear I will desstroy you, perssonally."

Aw! How wonderful was that? An Ice Lord who honestly cared about the women he commanded, and was willing to swear personal vendettas against any who caused them harm!

"Understood," the Doctor reassured the Ice Lord. "Wouldn't dream of it."

On the screen, an older woman with black hair and a fancy jump-suited uniform strolled onto the bridge, behind Freddy. She paused, then cleared her throat.

Freddy snapped to attention and saluted her, but the Doctor could tell that Freddy was none too happy about the woman's being here. In fact, Freddy looked like he was that close to tearing her apart.

"Officer June T. Marya," the woman announced to the screen, as she stepped towards it, flashing a badge. "Korjensky." She glanced over at Freddy, tucking the badge away. "Commander Fredslyr. Explain the situation."

Freddy explained it to her in rapid and efficient detail.

Marya nodded, then examined the Doctor, carefully. "Kill him," she decided. "We don't have the money for prisoners."


	11. Chapter 11

"Ah, actually, you really don't want to be doing that!" the Doctor protested, before the Slayers had a chance to act on Marya's suggestion. "As Korjensky Slayers, don't you have to follow the First Amendment of your Slayer Constitution?"

"If you were really a medic or physician, we would give you all the respect, protection, and freedom that our Constitution requires," Marya replied. "But seeing as your readings suggest that you're a Dalek Agent, the Constitution does not apply to you."

The Doctor knew he could appeal that decision, make them all re-examine their Constitution, but doing so would require a rather lengthy judicial procedure, involving his being placed in suspended animation and flown back to Korjensky to undergo a fair and balanced trial. And, at the moment, the Doctor didn't have time for that.

He turned his head towards the Ice Lord. "Lord Fredslyr of the Erythraeum clan, I appeal to you — an honorable and noble Ice Lord — to give me — the one who saved two of your Slayers — the chance to defend myself!"

Freddy thought the matter over, then nodded. "Let him sspeak."

"I'm the Doctor," said the Doctor, partly to Freddy, partly to Marya, but also to the rest of the women pointing guns at him. "An enemy of the Daleks, a friend of Korjensky, and a defender of life in all its forms. And no, I'm not human, and, no, you won't have heard of my species. But I've come here from planet Earth because everyone on that planet's surface is in terrible danger. A danger that — I'm guessing — you Slayers unleashed."

"Wait, what?" asked Jordan.

"Earth is perfectly fine!" Marya told the women surrounding the Doctor. "The Korjensky Officials have been in continual communication with Deborah Raykins, and she's reported no problems."

"Actually," said the Doctor, "Deborah Raykins is dead. Has been for a while, from what I gathered back on Earth."

Freddy seemed severely unnerved by the news. "Deborah Raykinss iss dead?"

"She's not dead," Marya told him. She turned to the Doctor. "We've been receiving her messages on a secured private network. Her thumbprint and sineyic scans all confirm that she is herself."

"What you're picking up is the artificially reanimated corpse of Deborah Raykins," the Doctor corrected. "A bio-mechanoid — part-Slayer, part-monster. Strong, intelligent, nearly indestructible. Picks up as Deborah Raykins on all your scans, and voiceprint matches perfectly, but she's not — and I mean _not_ — Deborah Raykins. No more than a converted cyberman would be."

The Slayers all looked at one another.

"Do... do you think he's serious?" Wendy asked the others. "You really think... Deb...?"

"It's a Dalek trick," Marya insisted. "If that sort of situation was really unfolding back on Earth, Korjensky certainly would have known about it by now."

"The Dalekss have tried to trick uss in thiss fasshion before," Freddy confirmed. He turned his blazing red eyes back at the Doctor. "Although never ussing a Replicant Agent."

"How, exactly, am I a Replicant Agent?" the Doctor demanded. "If I were, would I have saved Jordan and Ashley's lives back when we were floating through space?"

"If you wanted to get onboard our ship, then yes," said Jordan.

The Doctor flicked his eyes across the crowd of Slayers, and suddenly, worked it all out. "Ah, I see," he said. "The Daleks have been behaving... a little oddly, of late. Not acting quite as you expected. You think they're up to something. Something worse. That's why you're so convinced that I'm a Dalek Replicant, no matter what I say or do."

Freddy paused. "Posssibly," he conceded.

"Well, you're right!" said the Doctor. "About the being up to something part, not the Dalek Replicant part. See, the Daleks are scared. They're desperate. They're cooking up a plan to get rid of what you unleashed. And the only way any of us are going to make it out of this alive is if you listen to me."

Wendy gave a laugh. "Yeah, nice try, but that's not going to work on us."

"I've had enough of this," said Ashley. "Look, Freddy, do we kill this guy, or not?"

Freddy was about to speak, when the purple-haired Vivian came up, and whispered in his ear. He paused. "One moment pleasse," he rasped. Then the screen flickered out.

The Doctor sat in the middle of the Slayers, giving his least threatening smile, trying to look as if he didn't at all mind being surrounded by super high energy guns. "So! How's your day been?"

No one said anything.

"Well, mine's been a bit rubbish, to tell you the truth," said the Doctor. "First, I encountered a startling amount of vortex disruption on the way here. Then wound up facing off against two nearly unbeatable bio-mechanical enemies, and... oh, actually, this seems as good a time as any to ask. You haven't happened to have seen my friend around, have you? Name's Julie Parsoner. Human. Rather short, sort of mousy brown hair. A very in-your-face sort of woman. Complete genius, though. And from the twenty-first century."

Once again, no answer.

"Well, if you have seen her," said the Doctor, "I'd appreciate it if you let me know. She did me a good turn, a while back, and I don't like to leave good people like that in the hands of 39th century Daleks." He considered. "Actually, I don't really like to leave anybody in the hands of 39th century Daleks. Or any other sort of Daleks, for that matter. They're all basically the same, in terms of having no conscience, no purpose other than exterminating all forms of life, and no emotions besides—"

"Will you just shut up?" Jordan shouted. "Oh, my God! This guy is like a one-person talk-a-thon!"

Wendy muttered, "Look who's speaking."

Jordan scowled at her.

"What? I'm only trying to be friendly!" the Doctor said. "It must get lonely out here, in Lasky's Nebula. No one to talk to except the other Slayers. Still, very admirable, your mission. Honorable, as your Freddy would say. A troupe of noble women, gallantly fighting to push the Daleks away from the edges of the Galactic Federation. I mean, really—"

The screen popped back into the air, and Freddy appeared, once more. "Where did thiss Doctor ssay he comess from?"

"Earth," said the Doctor. "New Vankerfeld, actually. Or, rather, what remains of it." He glanced at the women nearby. "Thanks to IPSA."

"New... Vankerfeld?" Laura squeaked. "But... but Mom and..."

"And your sspeciess?" Freddy cut in.

"Time Lord," said the Doctor. "Triple helix DNA. 43 chromosomes."

"Freddy, what's this about?" asked Trista. "What's going on?"

"Apparently, the Doctor's story has been confirmed," Marya informed them. "Earth _is_ in danger, the Doctor _has_ been sent here to get help, and he's now been vouched for by a Code 5."

"Wait, what?" cried Ashley.

"Under Korjenssky Law, the Doctor can be resstrained," Freddy said, "but cannot be prossecuted without due causse." His red eyes bored into the Doctor. "But be warned, sstranger. If you causse harm to any Sslayer here, I sshall sshow you no mercy."

"So who is he, then?" asked Jordan. "Who vouched for him?"

"Look and ssee," said Freddy.

A second window popped up, this one holding a fuzzy transmission, that kept cutting out. The transmission seemed to show Gratewell, Pitrarca, and Kimpton, all standing around in one of the tents. Along with... oh dear. Buffy.

"...getting through," said Gratewell. The image wavered, then cut out, and reinstated itself. "...major situation, here..." Once again, it cut out, then reappeared, Gratewell saying, "...Adam, ravaging the Earth..." Another waver, then, "...whole cities completely destroyed, our armies outnumbered..." A flicker, then, "...Doctor said none of our distress signals were getting through, but we discovered this secondary encryption field..."

Complete horror and disbelief washed across the faces of the women surrounding the Doctor, as they all began to realize that the Doctor might have been telling them the truth.

The screen now showed Gratewell, gesturing at Buffy. "...friend of yours..." It cut out, then was replaced with Gratewell saying, "...Bu... Sompters..."

The horror and disbelief washed off their faces, now replaced by utter irritation and annoyance.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" said Jordan.

The image on the screen flickered, then stabilized, showing Buffy leaning forwards. "...message for IPSA..." she said. The image wavered. "...friend of mine is being kept prisoner on board a Dalek ship. He's called the Doctor, and he's here to help. Send..." The image flickered, again, then stabilized. "...rescue. And if you let him die, I promise you'll find out what a Slayer really is." She gave the camera a hard, cold stare, then the feed cut out.

"Who the hell was that?" Trista cried.

"She said she was..." Laura started.

"I mean her _real_ name!" said Trista. "I know what she said. That's like naming yourself Slayee McSlayer and expecting us to fall for it!"

The women all muttered their agreement.

"Freddy, this transmission's got to be faked or something," said Jordan. "A Slayee McSlayer, an alien guy who reads as a Code 5, and some convenient way that Deb might actually not be Deb anymore..."

"I'm afraid that General Gratewell's scans and credentials pass all the checks," said Marya. "And as for the girl..."

"She iss a Sslayer," Freddy told the others. "Her readingss are irrefutable."

The data popped up beside Freddy's window, scrolling through for the women near the Doctor to see. The women all dropped their guns, as they stared at the data.

"I've checked for her thumbprint," Marya continued. "So far, no match in the Korjensky Databases, but you can see the data for yourself. She's the real deal, and she's signed the forms vouching for the Doctor. Legally, we can hold him, but we can't prosecute him. Not without substantial incriminating evidence to back up our claim."

The Slayers all let the Doctor go, the ones holding guns holstering them with suspicion still in their every movement. However, there was a haunted, worried look in their faces that hadn't been there, before. One that seemed to have settled across the space ship the moment they heard about Earth's fate.

The Doctor sprung to his feet, finally free from restraints, and grinned.

"Thank you!" he said.

"What... what happened to Earth?" Wendy asked Freddy and Marya. "What's going on?"

"That's... complicated," Marya replied.

"No, actually, it isn't," the Doctor corrected. "IPSA has uncovered an evil, unstoppable monster that's currently in the process of destroying the human race. My friend and I are trying to mop up your mess. Any questions?"

"How's this _our_ mess?" Ashley asked. "We didn't do anything!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong," said the Doctor, "but I'm guessing that since humanity returned to Earth, following the solar flares of the 31st century, your organization's been searching for the legendary lost town of Sunnydale. Your supposed birthplace."

"Somelydaya," Jordan corrected.

"Birthplace of the Slayer," Ashley agreed. "And we found it."

"So, naturally, you decided to dig it up," the Doctor said.

"Well, yeah, of course," said Jordan. "It's where we came from. We want to know what it was like."

"We sseek the location of weaponss that might desstroy the Dalekss," Freddy added. "Legendss say that, in the birthplace of the Sslayer, one may find weaponss of unimaginable sstrength and power."

"Along with some of the most destructive forces known to mankind!" the Doctor qualified. "That town didn't turn into a gigantic crater just because it felt like it! There used to be a massive inter-dimensional rift in that town, and it collapsed."

"You mean like the one in Cardiff?" asked Wendy.

"Exactly like the one in Cardiff!" said the Doctor. "You've been funding digs that have put the entire Earth at risk, on the off-chance that you might find something mildly useful. But instead, your little archaeological excavation has unearthed something nasty. Very, very nasty. Nasty enough that even the Daleks are scared. They've been sending temporal teams out to try to destroy it in the past."

"Wait, what?" asked Jordan.

"Explain yoursself," Freddy demanded.

"Oh, trust me, I'm not finished telling you off, yet," said the Doctor. "But at the moment, I need you to do a little favor for my friend back on Earth. Did you pick up that alert signal that the Daleks used when they first captured me?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good!" said the Doctor. "Could you call that up for me, please?"

A little dialogue box popped up, displaying the data that the Doctor requested. The Doctor's eyes gleamed as he read it. It was the usual, of course — _alert, it is the Doctor, our number one enemy, the enemy of the Daleks, he must be exterminated, alert, alert,_ etc.

Everything to tell Adam exactly where he was.

"Splendid! Precisely what I wanted." He reached into his pocket, then remembered that Jordan had taken his sonic screwdriver. He gave a little awkward shuffle. "Ah. I don't suppose you could give me back...?"

Jordan scoffed. "We may not be able to execute you, but we're definitely not giving you a weapon."

"It's a screwdriver!" the Doctor insisted. "Honest!"

Jordan rolled her eyes, but either she believed him, or she was sure she could disarm him before he could do any real damage. She reached into her cleavage and handed the tool back to the Doctor.

"Much obliged!" said the Doctor, as he adjusted the sonic screwdriver's settings, then pointed it at one of the nearby computer banks. The screen in the air began to wobble and waver, then popped out of existence.

"What... what did you...?" Jordan looked between the computer banks, and the Doctor, anger radiating through her. "If you've screwed up anything, I swear..."

"Just sending a message," the Doctor said, placing the sonic back into his pocket where it belonged. "You can run a systems diagnostic, if you want. I haven't touched anything vital."

"He's telling the truth," came the report from Vivian, in the background. "He just sent the signal to Earth. He didn't mess with any of our instruments."

"Sent to Earth?" Marya said. "What are you playing at?"

"At the moment, I'm trying to get Adam's army off the planet, so I can save what's left of the human race," said the Doctor. "Adam will pick up the Dalek signal, realize I'm out here, and rush off to find me."

Ashley stared at where the Dalek signal had once been, a look of complete shock on her face. "Number one enemy," she muttered. She glanced back over at the Doctor. "Who are you?"

"And what's going on?" Trista added.

"I'm the Doctor," said the Doctor. "And what's going on is that I'm about to lecture all of you on how reckless and irresponsible you've been, and I need a large enough conference room to do it in. Now, what can you do about that?"


	12. Chapter 12

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

Professor Maggie Walsh paced the monitoring room of the Initiative, examining the image on the surveillance equipment. It displayed two interlopers, trying to discover some way to break into the secret elevator shaft — disguised as a mirror — which led into the Initiative.

"Who are they?" came Angleman's voice, behind her.

"Not students, that's for sure," said Walsh. She frowned, thinking the matter over. "Your opinions?"

Angleman surveyed the monitors, his brow creasing. "I doubt they're dangerous," he said, at last. "If they were spies, they'd be better equipped than this."

On the monitor, the red-haired girl banged her fists against the mirror, as if this would make it open.

"Probably just troublemakers," said Angleman. "Or reporters. They'll never find anything."

The man that the red-haired girl had called 'Rory' glanced around, then seemed to spot the camera. He went up to the girl, and whispered something in her ear, pointing. The girl spun around, her eyes fixed on the camera.

"There's something off about them," said Walsh. "Agent Finn knows nothing about them, but I could tell — they knew Finn."

On the monitor, the girl shouted, at the top of her lungs, "We know about Project 314!"

The man clapped a hand over her mouth, scolding her. The name 'Amy' on his lips.

Professor Walsh crossed her arms. "Well," she said. "That's interesting."

Angleman raised an eyebrow at her. "Should we...?"

Professor Walsh dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "No, no. Not yet. Just send a team after them." She stared at the screen a second longer. "I want to know what they're up to."

... ... ...

"Claw marks!" shouted Buffy, pointing at a set of clearly faked claw marks on a nearby tree.

The Doctor padded forwards in his trainers to examine the tree more closely. He frowned. There was a distinct tang in the air, like some sort of... long range teleport. He ran a hand through his spiky brown hair, thinking through the possibilities.

"And look!" said Buffy. "There's a footprint thingy!"

The Doctor looked down where he was standing, then stepped back, examining the mark on the ground. Surrounding the sculpted footprint that Buffy had placed in the dirt was a round circular indentation. As if someone had placed a great big oil drum on top of Buffy's work, then taken it off.

The Doctor squatted down to examine it more carefully.

"What do you think?" Buffy asked. "Do you think you'll have to stay kind of a long time, now? Like, kind of a really long time?"

"I think," the Doctor muttered, "that 'Hell' might be a very apt description."

"Buffy?" came a voice from their right.

The Doctor and Buffy looked up to discover Willow walking towards them. She gave the Doctor an uneasy wave, then hurried on over to Buffy.

None of the Scoobies had ever been entirely comfortable around him — the Doctor had known that from the very start. But apparently, his stint against that Anduwala Grabberitone (only a month or two ago, to them) had raised tensions between the Doctor and the Scoobies considerably. The Doctor hadn't exactly realized what the problem was until Buffy whispered to him that this was the first time he'd "gone all alien" around her friends.

"Buffy," said Willow, "Giles says that there's been some seriously disturbing mystical energy coming through recently, and he's afraid that..." Willow blinked, then noticed the footprint that Buffy had carved into the dirt. "Wait, what's that?"

"Nothing," said Buffy and the Doctor together.

Willow frowned. "That looks kind of like..." She hesitated, then noticed the claw mark on the tree. "Buffy, I think this is really bad."

"No!" said Buffy, glancing at the Doctor. "It's... it's not bad." She inched forwards, trying to stand in front of the tree with the claw mark.

The Doctor just stuck his hands into his pockets, and rocked back and forth on his trainers.

"No, Buffy, I've read about this!" said Willow. "This kind of thing! I think it's really, really bad! And there's been all this black stuff around, too, which is also really, really bad, and—"

"Tell you what," said the Doctor. "Why don't you two go sort this out, while I do some investigating on my own."

Buffy shot him a look that said, 'you'd better not be thinking of leaving, mister!'

Willow just looked at the Doctor, suspiciously. "You _know_ , don't you?"

"Know?" asked the Doctor. "What's there to know?"

"Will, he doesn't know anything," said Buffy, trying to lead her friend away. "Just... hey, I've got an idea! Let's go see Giles!"

Willow shrugged Buffy off. "No, Buffy, he knows what this place is!" said Willow. "I can tell!"

"Willow, seriously, he doesn't—," Buffy tried again.

"This is where all the mystical energy was coming from," said Willow. She pointed at the Doctor. "And... and... see? He's not surprised by that at all!"

"Odd tingle in the air," the Doctor informed her. He smacked his lips. "Bit of a tangy taste, actually. Bit... citrusy. Pretty standard for this sort of thing."

"See?" said Buffy, leading Willow away. "He's just Time-Lordy and stuff. It's nothing."

They disappeared into the distance, both still bickering about what was going on. The Doctor, however, had spotted something hidden in one of the tree branches. He scrambled up the tree, and managed to pluck it out.

"Febreeze," he muttered. He turned the can over. "Orange scented." He peered a little closer at the tree, and pulled something out of a hollowed out portion of its trunk. A little machine. "Static electricity generator." He gave a small laugh, as he looked off into the distance, at Buffy's fading form. "Oh, you really _have_ been paying attention! Tangy taste. Odd feeling in the air. You've got this all planned out."

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant, she was.

The Doctor was about to drop to the ground, but double checked the date on the Febreeze can, first. Phew. From the right year. That was a relief, at least.

Then he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. Something that was not a relief at all.

The Doctor dropped to the ground, and felt his hearts thudding in his chest, as he made his way towards the next cluster of trees. He really, really, really hoped that he'd been mistaken. He really, really hoped he'd been wrong about what he'd seen.

But, sure enough.

There, nestled in the cluster of trees, was a very familiar — but slightly more vibrant colored — blue police box. One that, the Doctor knew, was not his own.

Not _this_ him, at any rate.

The Doctor touched his hand to the outside. Oh, it was the TARDIS alright. And he could reach out with his mind and feel that there wasn't another-him wandering about nearby. Which meant...

"Emergency program one," he muttered.

He was dead. Somewhere, in his own future, he was dead, and the TARDIS had taken his companions back here. He rested his cheek against the side of the box. The TARDIS felt... worried. Frightened. Lonely. It confirmed what he'd suspected... but really hoped wasn't true.

The two time travelers were his future companions.

And he was dead.

"Hell," he repeated. "Very apt description."

That was when he heard the very faint echo of an energy weapon discharging somewhere in the distance. So faint that human ears probably couldn't pick it up. But the Doctor could.

And knew what it was.

He peeled himself away from the police box, and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. "Well, Elizabeth," he said, although he knew she was nowhere near, "I'd say our Duo of Hell has just turned into a trio."


	13. Chapter 13

The Assembled Association of the Greater United States, Earth, 3847

If there was one thing that Buffy _hadn't_ planned on doing, when she'd woken up this morning, it was facing down an entire Adam army in the 39th century, completely unarmed save for a crossbow.

Which had been taken away the moment she was captured.

She struggled against the Adam-lookalikes who were dragging her towards an enemy she honestly never wanted to see again in her life. "Let me go!" she shouted.

One of the ghastly monsters holding her gave an evil laugh. "I think you'll find Adam's the one in charge, now, little lady."

"And Adam recognizes you," said the second monster. "He remembers you. He wants revenge."

Yeah, this was really not what Buffy had planned on doing when she woke up, this morning. About 1800 years ago.

She managed to get her left arm free, then counterbalanced and flipped the monster on her right up and over her shoulder, so that it let go of her arm and thudded against the wall. She ducked as the other monster flew at her and tried to charge away from them, glancing over her shoulder to get a better look.

That was when she felt two very strong, cold, clammy hands grab her and lift her into the air, effortlessly. Pinning her arms by her sides. Her feet swinging uselessly in the air. As she was raised up, she looked forwards, again, and found herself staring into the mismatched, slightly decayed but mostly intact eyes of Adam.

He was grinning at her. "Hello, again. Slayer."

"Wow," said Buffy, glancing at his slightly decayed body. "You look a lot worse than you did two days ago."

"Ah, yes, that's right," said Adam, his eyes gleaming in anticipation. "You've travelled through time."

Buffy swallowed. "No, wait, I didn't mean—"

"It is interesting," Adam mused, "that you wouldn't think that your very presence would alert me to that fact. Someone I faced 1800 years ago fighting here, in the future." He squeezed harder on her arms, and Buffy bit her lip to hold back the pain. "You know, the Doctor once told me I wasn't the future. That I wouldn't survive. And yet, here I am." His eyes narrowed at Buffy. "But where is he?"

"I'm not telling you where he is!" Buffy shouted.

"So you _do_ know where he is," Adam confirmed.

Buffy glared at him, saying nothing.

"It is fascinating," Adam mused, "truly fascinating that the Doctor, who claims to be on your side, has managed to do what Spike could not. Separate you from your friends. Leave you at my mercy."

Buffy didn't answer him.

"I have done all this for him," said Adam, nodding at his cybernetic army and the chaos surrounding them. "To acquire him. I have given myself upgrades to match this new era. I have built an army ready to swallow the world. And I have programmed them to go out into the stars, spreading our message throughout the universe."

"I wouldn't call butchering a bunch of people a message," said Buffy. "More like a bloodbath. No, actually, more like every birthday I've ever had. Including, I guess, my 1800th. I mean, seriously, is there some memo to the universe saying, 'it's Buffy's birthday, let's make her life a living hell?' Or is that just how it feels?"

"Destruction is the only message worth receiving," Adam informed her, as if it were a well-established fact. "Bloodshed the only salvation worth giving."

"I mean," Buffy continued, ignoring him, "what's wrong with January 12th? Or June 22nd? Or September 29th? Why does bad stuff always happen to me on my birthday?"

Adam surveyed her, carefully, then flung her against the side of a crumbling brick wall with a force that knocked the wind right out of her. She tried to stumble to her feet.

"Restrain her," Adam told his army.

They rushed to do his bidding, and swarmed across Buffy. She struggled, tried to kick them off, but failed, and wound up with a bent iron pole tied like rope around her torso, another twisted around her ankles.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

"I want to conduct a scientific experiment," said Adam, pacing in front of her. "To understand how humans operate. To better understand how their brains work."

"Yeah, well, you're the walking science project," said Buffy. "Hey, I've got an idea! When you finally get your time machine, why don't you go back in time and sue that person that wrote Frankenstein for defamation of character? That'd be totally worth it!"

"I want to observe," said Adam, "how much pain it takes to force a human being to talk."

Yeah. Real fun.

"You can torture me all you like," Buffy warned. "I'm not telling you anything."

Adam nodded at the two monsters on his right, who edged in on Buffy, licking their lips menacingly. Oh, great. Next time the Doctor saw her, he was going to kill her for ignoring his plan so she could turn herself into a human punching bag. But it was the only way Buffy could think of to get Adam to Lasky's Nebula. Especially now that she'd gotten IPSA to rescue the Doctor.

(Please let him be okay.)

She felt the clawed hands rip at her sides, and she clenched her jaw to try to hold back the scream lingering at her lips. She could feel someone else pounding her stomach until she felt like she was going to throw up, at which point they gave her a good punch in the face.

"Enough!" said Adam, and they backed off.

Buffy glanced up at Adam, and felt a trickle of blood running down her forehead. "Is this how you tortured the Doctor?" she asked, every single bit of venom she felt over that incident in her voice. "Is this what you did to him?"

"I studied him," Adam corrected her. "A fascinating creature. With a mind to rival my own. And yet, so weak and malleable due to his emotions. Crippled by guilt. Love. Compassion."

"Crippled by you," Buffy spat. "Torturing him. Trapping him."

"I never trapped him," Adam replied. "I only let him trap himself. He never left, because he could never bear to let someone else suffer. His compassion trapped him. His love for others tortured him. And ultimately, it was his guilt that destroyed him."

" _You_ destroyed him," said Buffy. "And in return, I destroyed you. And you know what? I'm gonna really, really enjoy doing it again."

"Fascinating," said Adam. "You showed such devotion and love towards Riley Finn. And yet... here you are. Showing that same love and devotion for someone else."

Buffy didn't answer.

"Love," said Adam. "The greatest weakness of them all."

Buffy felt her lower lip trembling. "Oh, no," she said. "Love is _not_ a weakness. What you have, right now, without love or compassion or kindness — _that's_ a weakness!"

Adam paced the room, an amused smile still lingering on his lips. "You say that love is not a weakness," he said, "and yet, you forgave Riley Finn everything, 1800 years ago. You loved, and so you forgave. You loved, and so you ignored. You loved, and so you allow him to do it again."

Buffy didn't have a good answer to this.

"And here, now, we see the same weakness," said Adam. "I torture you, and you let me."

"I'm not letting you," Buffy hissed. "You're trying to extract information from me."

"I believe," said Adam, "that you _want_ me to torture you. That you came here in person, attacking with no backup or defense, because you wanted to make sure that I harmed you. The same way the Doctor was harmed while he was trapped in the Initiative."

Buffy didn't answer.

"You feel guilt," said Adam, "for being safe and sound, up on the surface, while the Doctor was tortured below your feet. You want to feel pain because you can't forgive yourself for letting him feel pain. You can't blame Riley Finn, because you love him. And so you blame yourself." He turned to face Buffy. "And it is because of your weak emotions that you must die."

"If you kill me, the Doctor will make you wish you were never born," Buffy warned Adam.

"Good," said Adam. "I have an army awaiting him. An army he can never hope to defeat."

"Oh, yeah?" said Buffy. "Well, you'll never get past the Doctor's Dalek army!"

Adam paused at this. His head turning to examine Buffy more carefully.

"Dalek army?" Adam asked.

Buffy didn't say anything.

"Explain," Adam demanded.

Buffy still said nothing.

Adam nodded at the two monstrous cybernetic lackeys that had been beating Buffy before, and they advanced on her, their eyes eager for destruction and carnage. Buffy braced herself.

The monsters beat her enough, this time, that she couldn't hold back the scream that was ripped from her throat, or the whimper that left her lips once they'd finished.

"Explain," Adam commanded her, again. "I know of these Daleks. Insignificant things. Nothing compared to myself. The Doctor spoke of them often, during his captivity. He seemed to dislike them."

Buffy took a few rasping breaths. "The Doctor... doesn't like weapons," she said. "But he uses them when he has to. It's the same... with the Daleks."

"They have an alliance, then?" asked Adam.

Buffy didn't answer.

Adam nodded to the other monsters, who approached Buffy once more, and she winced.

"Yes!" Buffy cried, before they could strike out at her.

The monsters backed away, at a signal from Adam.

Buffy took a few heavy breaths. "The Daleks and the Doctor go back... a long time," she admitted. "They've... they've always been allies in times of war. The Doctor doesn't like them, but he returns to them, over and over again."

"Interesting," said Adam. "Very interesting." He began pacing, once more, musing this over in his mind. "The Doctor. War. Daleks. It's hard to believe." He paused, then resumed his pacing. "After all, the Doctor always seemed so... pacifistic. The humans at the Initiative locked him up in a cage with some of the worst creatures you could imagine, and he refused to harm them."

"That's because he's got a soul," Buffy spat.

Adam looked off into the distance, as if recalling the memory to his mind. Seeing it play out before his eyes. "Would you like to know what it was like? Seeing his skin torn by the talons of some hideous creature? Seeing his blood spill upon the floor? The scientists silenced his voice, so he couldn't reason with the creatures. Couldn't placate them or mesmerize them. The scientists trapped him so he couldn't even run." He gave a small smile. "I watched every silent scream he gave."

If Buffy hadn't been restrained, she'd have torn Adam apart for that. Or tried to, anyways. "Shut up."

"That hurts you, doesn't it?" Adam asked. "Hearing how the humans caused the Doctor pain?"

" _You_ caused him pain," Buffy hissed.

"I watched," Adam corrected. "I analyzed. I absorbed knowledge. Every torture, every test, every experiment that made him scream in agony — was designed and carried out by humans. Your race. Your people. The ones you're sworn to protect."

Buffy squeezed her eyes shut.

"Ah," said Adam, thoughtfully. "So that is the source of your guilt. You saved their lives, protected them, fought alongside them. And in return, they tortured and nearly killed the one you love. While you never knew. Never saved him. Never intervened."

Buffy gritted her teeth, trying to ignore Adam's words. Trying not to let them get to her.

"You are like the Doctor, in that respect," Adam mused. "The worst torture is admitting your own powerlessness. Your own helplessness. Your inability to protect the ones you love from their tormentors."

"I protected Riley," Buffy retorted.

Adam's grin grew a little wider, as if Buffy's comment had just made his point.

Buffy bit her lip, and looked away. Adam was just trying to provoke her. She had to get past this, to push it aside and continue with the plan.

"Hurt me all you want," said Buffy. "I'll still never tell you where the Doctor is."

Adam regarded her, curiously. "But perhaps," he said, "your guilt is only a secondary motive. You know I want revenge. You know that your pain is my distraction. You seek to delay me. Give the Doctor time to escape." Adam thought a moment. "To his... Dalek allies."

Buffy didn't answer.

"He always spoke of the Daleks with such distaste," Adam noted. "Such vehemence. It seems odd to discover that he and they would be allies."

"He doesn't like vampires, either," said Buffy. "But he still won't stake them."

"And that's another thing I've noticed," Adam mused. "This is the future. You — and others — are Vampire Slayers. The Slayer has become common knowledge." He paused in his pacing. "So where are all the vampires?"

Buffy blinked. "Huh?"

"I have walked this Earth," said Adam, "and have seen how it has changed, and how it has remained the same. Seen every new city created, seen every new alien that has arrived, seen every demon that lurks upon this planet — some the same, most different. But I have yet to run across a single vampire."

Buffy felt her jaw drop. She didn't know what to say. It was just so... weird. Bizarre. No vampires? What... had happened? (Was Angel still alive?)

"It is fascinating, isn't it?" Adam asked her. "The future. The new world. Truly, truly fascinating." He turned back to Buffy. "I have decided that you are lying. The Doctor cannot possibly be allies with the Daleks. To do so, he'd be fighting against humanity, and that is something the Doctor would never, ever do."

Another one of Adam's minions came stumbling over, at that moment. "Urgent message for you!" he said. "From Lasky's Nebula."

Adam stuck his hand out, and was handed a small, glowing marble, which melted in Adam's palm and spread out into a holographic projection of a large amount of words and numbers all jarbled together.

They then morphed together into the following message: "An Alert from IPSA: a dangerous enemy alien known as THE DOCTOR has invaded our ship. He has been secured. Full destruction of the Doctor will begin in 86,400 seconds."

Buffy felt her heart sink. She should have known better! IPSA might not be the Initiative, but they were still military commando guys. Now the Doctor was going to be tortured and maybe even killed, just because of her, and... it was her fault. Again.

Stupid Buffy. Trusting strangers with something as important as the Doctor's life.

She had to get to Lasky's Nebula. And in 86,400 seconds.

(Wait, what was up with the seconds thing? Did IPSA count time only in seconds, or something? She hadn't seen any evidence of anyone doing that here on Earth. What race of aliens counted stuff in terms of only seconds, anyways?)

Adam looked down at Buffy, a vaguely amused smile on his face. "Well, then," he said. "It seems that you weren't lying after all. The Doctor is an enemy of IPSA and the human race, and an ally of the Daleks." The smile spread into a grin. "How does it feel, knowing that he's betrayed you and your kind?"

"It's my birthday, I'm 1800 years old and being tortured by a decaying corpse I killed 2 days ago," said Buffy. "How do you think it feels?"

"IPSA will execute him, of course," Adam mused. "Once they discover who he is. What he can do for me." He glanced over at Buffy. "Or... perhaps not."

Buffy said nothing. She didn't like that sudden gleam in his eyes.

"You don't know what IPSA is, do you?" Adam asked her.

Aardvarks, ho!

"Oh, come on, are you going to talk at me all day or are you going to actually do something?" Buffy shouted. "At least let me kick your ass if you're going to be so annoying about it!"

Adam called over one of his cybernetic monsters — one of his Adametta's, judging by her female-looking face and hand. All the rest of her was monster and machine.

"Do you know who this is?" Adam asked Buffy. "Do you know _what_ this is?"

"Freaky demon-cyborg crime-against-nature?" Buffy guessed. "Or... oh, God, please don't use some lame joke like saying, 'it's Cher without makeup!' Because that's _so_ overdone!"

Adam's smile turned into a dark, malicious grin. "You have no idea," he said. "But I'll bet the Doctor does." He paced towards Buffy. "And so will you, when I find him. When I have both of you in my clutches. At my mercy."

Buffy glared at Adam. "I am not going to let you hurt him."

Adam grabbed at the metal bands surrounding her torso, and jerked her up to his eye level. "I don't think you understand," he said. "To make the Doctor surrender, I don't need to hurt _him._ The only person I have to hurt is _you_." His eyes gleamed at the thought. "And when I'm done, and both the Doctor and his ship are completely under my power, I will finally kill you and your kind once and for all. I will have my revenge."

"You're totally insane!" said Buffy. "You against the Daleks? It'll be a complete slaughter!"

"Oh, no," said Adam. " _This_ will be _fun_."


	14. Chapter 14

Lasky's Nebula, 3847 

"In the early twenty-first century," the Doctor explained to the assembled group of IPSA members, which now included Freddy and Marya and a large number of others, in a rather big room that he'd been led to, a little ways down the corridor from the teleport bay, "an immoral yet innovative group called 'the Initiative' created a monster — a cybernetic demonoid, with no conscience or sense of morality. Adam."

"What's this got to do with anything?" asked Wendy. "You said something about Earth being destroyed! What's going on with Earth?"

"I'm getting to that!" the Doctor insisted. "Now, this Adam was fought and then defeated, after which he was sealed up inside the ruins of the Initiative, and forgotten. Then the Sunnydale rift collapsed, leaving behind a few temporal blurps and bubbles. Adam's body must have fallen into one of these bubbles, preserving him perfectly through the ages and protecting his mechanical circuits from the electromagnetic storm."

"We don't care about this stuff!" shouted a Slayer from the crowd. "Just tell us what's happening on Earth!"

"What's happening on Earth is that you Slayers have been digging up Sunnydale," the Doctor replied. "Your archaeological team uncovered this self-same Adam, thought he'd help your war effort, and reanimated him. Adam killed Deborah Raykins and any other Slayers on Earth, reanimated them as conscience-less monsters to serve his own purposes, and is currently using them to help him slaughter the human race."

A hush fell across the Slayers, as they all processed what this meant. They all looked at one another, horror in their eyes, and a tremor in their hands.

"New Vankerfeld," said Laura. "You said it was... I mean, my parents... are they...?"

"I don't know," said the Doctor. "I'm sorry."

"What about New Boston?" shouted a Slayer from the crowd.

"And Haikopotrampo?" another shouted.

The Slayers all began shouting out at the Doctor, all at once, inquiring about friends, families, and loved ones left behind on Earth. Their every word was filled with guilt and heartache and concern, their voices flooding the air with a deluge of grief.

Marya banged her fist against the metal wall. "That's enough!" she shouted. "Yes, we're all worried about Earth. Yes, many of us came from there. But there's still a war going on out here! The moment our defensive line makes one mistake, every person on every planet in the Galactic Federation will be exterminated!"

"But... but if this Adam was dug up in Somelydaya," one of the girls from the crowd piped in, "that... that means... the Doctor's right. _We_ did this. What happened to the Earth was our faults."

Another worried murmur spread through the crowd, as the girls became increasingly agitated and upset.

"We all knew this was a risk!" Marya shouted, her voice making the girls fall silent once more. "The Korjensky Officials were all aware that something like this might happen, but against an enemy like the Daleks—"

"Korjensky _knew_ that this could happen?" Wendy cried.

Marya remained stone-faced and rigid. "We had to do it!" she insisted. "With the high number of casualties that have occurred in the last year—"

"Oh, God, we're losing, aren't we?" Jordan asked. "That's what Korjensky isn't telling us! That's why we've been doing these completely desperate—"

"We are _not_ losing!" Marya shouted.

"Well, no, of course not. You're just running out of money," the Doctor said. "You Korjensky Officials have begun to realize that your war against the Daleks is going to last forever, and you're not sure you can afford it."

Marya faltered.

A murmur went up through the crowd.

"If you had the first idea," Marya said to the Doctor, her fists clenched by her sides and her eyes cold and biting, "just how difficult it is to fight against the Daleks — for a hundred and fifty years! — you'd know that we have to—"

"Oh, I know the Daleks all too well," said the Doctor. "Completely indestructible, completely ruthless, extraordinarily clever, and determined to wipe out every other creature in the cosmos. Problem is, Adam's exactly the same. Where you had one group of unstoppable bio-mechanoids to defeat, Officer June T. Marya, you now have two."

"We destroyed Earth," Ashley whispered. "All those people. All those deaths." She shook her head. "How could this have happened? How could we not have _known_?"

"That's enough!" shouted Marya, before the others could get started, again. "Yes, we've accidentally unleashed a force that's ravaged the Earth. And, no, none of us are happy about that. But IPSA is still strong! And while IPSA's strong, we can overcome anything!"

The girls in the room all stood to attention.

"We are...!" shouted Marya.

"The Chosen Ones!" the girls shouted back.

"And we fight...!"

"Against the forces of darkness!" the girls chorused, their voices proud, determined, brave.

"To bring...!"

"Peace, unity, and harmony!" the girls shouted.

"And to kick Dalek ass!" added a girl at the back.

Everyone else cheered their agreement.

Freddy stepped forwards. "If thesse Sslayerss have losst family on Earth, we musst avenge them! I sshall call upon my clanssmen on Marss to aid uss. We musst fight for the honor of every Sslayer on Vanquisher 17!"

A far more excited cheer burst through the room.

The Doctor leaned back against the wall, crossing his legs in front of him. "Oh, you're in way over your heads," he said.

"We have spare forces we can summon back at Korjensky!" said Marya. "We will retaliate against this Adam, and—"

"You've been fighting the Daleks for 150 years," the Doctor cut in. "But you still have no idea what happens when Daleks feel desperate, do you?"

"We know everything there is to know about Daleks," Marya retorted. "IPSA's strategies and procedures are proven to ensure—"

"I'm a time traveler, Marya," said the Doctor. "And my first hint about the situation unfolding here in the 39th century was not from this time period. It was from the past. A good 1800 years ago, in the legendary lost town of Sunnydale, California. Wherein I encountered at least two different Dalek temporal teams."

A hush settled across the room.

"But..." said Ashley, "but... that's right around when... and where..."

The Doctor nodded at her to go on, but she didn't.

"Are the Dalekss aware that the Sslayer heritage ssprings from that time and place?" asked Freddy.

"Let's just say," the Doctor continued, "that I've had to rescue a certain One Girl In All The World from Dalek extermination at least once."

Silence lingered for several moments.

"The... the Daleks," Laura whispered. "They actually... tried to kill...?"

"Yes they did," the Doctor agreed. "The Daleks have invaded your past, IPSA, and if you're not careful, they'll wipe you out before you ever began."

Laura's face went pale.

"Oh, God, we totally screwed this up," muttered Jordan.

The rest of the Slayers all began murmuring to one another, as well, their voices showing — not just worry, but actual fear and panic, this time.

Even Marya, standing by the Ice Lord's side, seemed a little shaken. She quickly schooled her looks into the stern seriousness of a warrior determined to fight.

"I'll relay the information to Korjensky, but it's obvious what they'll say," Marya announced. "The Daleks have left us with no other option. We must find their time travel technology, and use it for ourselves. Bring the fight to the Daleks! Go back to Sunnydale, 2000, destroy the Dalek temporal teams, and..."

"No, no, no!" the Doctor shouted. "There should be no time travel in this situation whatsoever! And particularly not to the year 2000 — that's an unstable spot as is! The time-streams have already become polluted enough that temporal echoes from the 39th century are spilling into the year 2000. Psychedelic beer, monsters of suspicious shape and origin, all that sort! An attack on the scale you're proposing could have catastrophic side-effects!"

"We musst retaliate againsst the Dalekss," Freddy said. "It iss honorable."

"It'd be turning a minor spacial skirmish into a full-blown time war!" the Doctor told them. "Do you have the slightest idea what that means?"

"And what happens if we don't?" Jordan demanded of the Doctor. "Right now, the Daleks can just waltz right into our past, change anything they want, and we wouldn't have any idea!"

"They haven't—" the Doctor started.

"Jordan's right!" Trista said. "If we don't use time travel ourselves, we'll never be able to defend against these kinds of attacks! It's the only solution!"

"You can't—" the Doctor tried.

"Everyone keep calm!" Marya demanded. "We will discover some method of time travel, and we'll certainly invade the past to make sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again. We simply need to find some way to get our hands on time travel technology..." She paused, then turned to the Doctor. "Hang on. Did you say you were a time traveler?"

The Doctor threw up his hands in frustration. "Are any of you listening to me? The Daleks have invaded your past, and, yes, you should be worried about that, but they _haven't_ changed anything! What _you're_ proposing, right now, would result in the complete destabilization of all of time and space, and the beginnings of another massive—"

Marya turned to the other Slayers, and snapped her fingers at them. A surge of women swarmed around the Doctor and restrained him, again.

The Doctor sighed. "I'm beginning to notice a reoccurring trend, here," he muttered.

Ashley shook her head, her amber strands of hair tumbling across her shoulders. "No, wait, wait, hang on," she said. "He's right. We can't do this."

"We must," Marya insisted. "This is war. If this Doctor has a time ship, then we will commandeer it and use it to construct others. We will destroy the Daleks from all of history — for the good of the Galactic Federation!"

"He's right, though!" Ashley insisted. "If we go back in time, we'd be starting a war across four dimensions, and we've got no idea how to fight that kind of battle! We've already completely screwed things up, just fighting in our normal three dimensions! If we add a fourth, and we could make things even worse!"

The Doctor gave Ashley a grin. "You're very clever; you know that?"

Ashley crossed her arms. "Why don't we just blow up the Daleks' time tech, instead of using it ourselves?"

"We musst maintain honor," Freddy said. "The Dalekss have sstruck at uss in the passt. We musst strike back in the ssame fasshion."

"Then you'll have to wait a very, very long time," said the Doctor. "Because I'm not going to let you have my time machine, any more than I'll let Adam have it."

"Legally, you are required to surrender any and all vehicles in your possession to IPSA upon demand!" snapped Marya, stalking towards him, her eyes blazing.

Ashley stepped between them. "Legally, he's been vouched for by a Code 5, and we can't touch him."

"He could still be a Dalek Replicant, Ash," said Jordan.

"Does he _sound_ like a Replicant?" Ashley asked. "Does he _act_ like a Replicant? I know Dalek Replicants can imitate their human counterparts almost flawlessly, but the one thing they _never_ do is lecture about moral responsibility!"

"You're just going to trust an unknown alien who won't even give us his name?" asked Trista. "'The Doctor'? Doctor _who_?"

"He's been vouched for by an unknown Slayee McSlayer, who's not even Korjensky!" Jordan added. "Even if he's not a Replicant, we've still got no idea who he is, or who his friend is! So why are you agreeing with him?"

"Can't you feel it?" Ashley asked Jordan and the Slayers around her. "Every time I contemplate the possibility of actually going through with this, going back in time and spreading this conflict through four dimensions, it's like..." She shuddered.

Across the room, the other Slayers looked at one another, a little uneasily.

"My whole life, I've been trained to follow my instincts," Ashley said. "And right now, all my instincts are screaming at me that this is a bad idea."

"Ultimately, the decision is out of our hands," said Marya. "We'll keep the Doctor incarcerated until I can contact Korjensky and let the Officials make a decision."

"You should listen to Ashley, Officer Marya," the Doctor said, his voice calm and low. "Your Officials, back on Korjensky — most of them aren't Slayers themselves. It's still traditional in this era of history to have the Korjensky Officials be comprised of at least one representative from every planet the Slayer Institute is sworn to protect, yes?"

The bob of nodding heads showed the Doctor that his assumption had been spot on.

"And, of course," the Doctor continued, "the Korjensky president isn't a Slayer. That's been traditional from the very beginning, hasn't it?"

Once again, the nodding of heads.

"The other races can't feel it," said the Doctor. "Nor can the normal humans. But you can. You Slayers. You Chosen Ones, fighting back against the forces of darkness. You can feel it in your instincts." He gazed out at the sea of women. "Do you think this is a good idea?"

The women restraining the Doctor looked at one another, then let him go. A murmur went up through the crowd.

Laura stepped forwards. "Can I just... ask a question, really quick?" She pointed at the Doctor. "To him?"

Marya sighed, throwing her hands up in despair. "Why not? Everyone else has completely dropped all sense of order and procedure!"

"If this Adam's so dangerous, and the Daleks are so afraid of him, why didn't they go even further back into the past to prevent Adam from ever being created in the first place?" asked Laura.

The Doctor frowned. "That," he said, pointing at Laura, "is a very good question."

"Time travelling into the past to get rid of someone you met in the future?" Ashley made a face. "Yeah, that's another one of those completely-against-my-instincts things."

"Wouldn't it create a super-bad paradox that could destroy the universe?" asked Wendy. "Like — remember — in that movie — 'Vixolonqnards of Passion'?"

"It would," said the Doctor. "But knowing the Daleks, I'm not sure they'd care about that. It's never stopped them before."

A screen popped up above the Doctor's head, showing a very worried-looking Vivian. "Freddy, we're getting a really bizarre transmission coming in. From some... really weird monster-looking guys."

Marya nodded. "Secure the Doctor," she told the Slayers. "I'll deal with him later."

The Slayers nearby glanced at each other, a little uneasily, but still twisted the Doctor's arms behind his back, snapping a pair of handcuffs around his wrists.

Not securing him nearly as well as they had when they thought he was a real threat, then. Seems the Doctor was making progress. His mind began racing through different escape options, but Marya must have noticed the mischievous gleam in his eye, because she snapped her fingers at Jordan.

"Maloparsh," Marya demanded. "Cover him."

Jordan pulled out a gun and pointed it at the Doctor's head.

"I thought you weren't allowed to execute me," the Doctor said.

Jordan rolled her eyes. "Safety's still on," she muttered to him, quietly enough that Marya wouldn't hear. "See?" She pulled the trigger three times, and nothing happened.

Marya, in the meantime, had turned back to Vivian. "Send the transmission through."


	15. Chapter 15

Vivian tapped some buttons, then her image blinked out. It was replaced, instead, by a face the Doctor recognized. It looked slightly more decayed than the last time he'd seen it — although, to be fair, last time the Doctor had been half dead and nearly unconscious, and had only really gotten a glimpse — but still incredibly intact, considering that Adam had been dead for 1800 years.

"Thiss must be the Adam that we have heard of," Freddy said. He stepped forwards. "Be warned. We sshall not let you desstroy the peopless of the Galactic Federation!"

The others nearby all cheered their agreement.

"What do you want?" Marya demanded.

Adam surveyed them, carefully. "So," he said, "you are IPSA. The future." He glanced over his shoulder at the restrained, beaten figure lying on the space ship floor behind him. "Her future."

The Doctor felt anger flaring through him, dark and icy, as he took the image in. As he recognized the beaten blond figure on the ground. As he realized what Buffy must have done to make sure that Adam believed her. He stood there, his eyes fixed on the screen, almost too angry to speak.

On the screen, Buffy picked her head up, and squinted. "Huh?"

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at Adam. "I swear," said the Doctor, in his darkest, angriest voice, "you'll pay for every injury that you've inflicted on her."

"Fascinating," said Adam. "Your face has changed. Yet your emotions — your feelings towards her — remain the same."

Buffy, behind him, gave a sigh and rolled her eyes. She mouthed something at the Doctor that looked like, _Can you believe this guy?_

"What iss it you want from uss?" Freddy demanded.

"I require the Doctor," Adam told them. "And you will give him to me."

"Fat chance!" laughed Ashley. "Newsflash, Cyberman-Reject! You're a creepy-looking monster thing! And IPSA doesn't make deals with creepy-looking monster things!"

"Yeah!" shouted everyone else.

"We reject your propossal," Freddy told Adam. "Ssurrender, or we will desstroy you."

"I very much doubt that," said Adam.

"The Doctor is currently in the custody of IPSA," Marya informed Adam. "And he will remain there. Considering the scale of the calamity we're facing, there is no power in the universe that you could use to convince us to hand him over."

Adam paced back towards the bound, beaten form of Buffy, yanking her up by the metal bands restraining her. "Do you know who this is?" Adam asked them. "I'm sure you all recognize the name. Buffy Anne Summers."

The Slayers all looked at one another, not sure where Adam was going with all this.

"You will give me the Doctor," Adam explained to them, "or I will kill her."

"Adam," the Doctor growled, "don't you dare—"

"Ah," said Adam, with a grin. "You have worked it out, haven't you? You know what IPSA stands for."

"If you kill her, you'll be creating a paradox beyond your understanding!" the Doctor warned Adam. "You're messing with forces you can't possibly comprehend!"

"Yeah, he likes doing that," Buffy told the Doctor.

Beside the Doctor, Ashley's face gained a suddenly worried look. "Wait — wait a minute. What do you mean, paradox?"

"It is simple," Adam replied to the IPSA members in front of him. "The Doctor is a time traveler. He arrived in this time and place to dispose of me. But he didn't arrive alone." He glanced at Buffy, then back at the others, the grin growing a little wider.

"Uh, you guys," said Jordan, as she looked between the Doctor and the screen, and began to work it all out. "I'm starting to get a really bad feeling about this."

"Adam... said her name... was Buffy Anne Summers," said Wendy. "Which sounds really, really similar to..."

"Time travel," Marya breathed, as she began to work it out as well. She flicked her eyes over to the Doctor. "21st century Earth, he said."

"But... wait, you mean, she's not just named after...?" said Laura. "She actually... _is..._?"

"Exactly," said Adam. "This is the very same Slayer that forms the basis and inspiration for your organization. The one whose ideals and principles you have based your life's work on. Your legendary leader."

"Wait, wait, what?" Buffy asked. She looked from Adam to the screen — at the women and the Doctor. "Is someone going to tell me what's going on, here?"

"IPSA," Adam explained to Buffy, "stands for the Inter-Planetary Slayer Alliance." He gestured at the women on the screen. "Every single woman there is a Slayer. Every one of them is your future."

Buffy gaped, and stared at the screen, unable to speak for a moment. Her mouth formed words, but no sounds came out. She glanced over to the Doctor.

"I didn't know, either," the Doctor told her, "until I arrived."

"Wait," said Buffy. "Wait, wait, wait a moment! IPSA — those people on the screen — they're... they're Slayers? Like, not just one or two, but... all of them? They're _all_ Slayers?"

"They are your legacy," Adam said. "Your future." He turned back to the women. "But _she_ is your past. And if you don't give me the Doctor, I will kill that past. Right here and now."

"Oh, God," Ashley whispered.

A hushed gasp fell across the other IPSA members, as they took in the full horror of what they were being threatened with. A few of them whispered Buffy's name, but most just stared at her with a sort of reverent awe.

Buffy shifted in her bonds, a little uncomfortably. "Okay... why are they looking at me like...?" She paused, then looked back at the Doctor. "Hang on. Am I... famous?"

The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut. He had really, really hoped that Buffy and the future Slayers would not actually meet. The timeline already had a lot to compensate for, what with Buffy's no longer being around in 2003. It didn't need this additional strain.

"Oh, my God, I am!" Buffy exclaimed. "In the future I'm famous! That's like... serious on the wow factor!" Her eyes lit up, and she gave the Doctor an excited grin. "Ooh! Is there a postcard with my face on it? Or, oh, a stamp!"

"I'm sorry about this, Elizabeth," the Doctor muttered to Buffy.

"Pfft! Sure you are, Mr. The-A-Stands-For-Aardvark," said Buffy. She beamed at him. "So, why are there super numbers of Slayers now? Or is it just that medicine's gotten so advanced in the future that everyone's always dying and coming back to life, making more and more Slayers until it kind of got crazy?"

"It's got to be her," muttered Jordan. "Intelligent, fearless, and confident, even when facing certain doom. She even has the legendary Bunfy Sompters 'Humor In The Face of Death'."

"Bunfy Sompters," said Ashley. "It really is."

"Bunfy?" Buffy cried. She glared at the Doctor. "Seriously? In the future, I'm famous, and I'm _Bunfy_?"

"Elizabeth..."

"Bunfy!" Buffy repeated. "That's like a mix between comfy, and bun! I don't wanna be a comfy bun in the future! That's weird."

"Elizabeth," said the Doctor, a little louder. "Did he hurt you?"

Buffy looked away from him, looking a little sheepish. "Not... a whole lot." She struggled a little, but the restraints wouldn't bend. "Look, the important thing is, Doctor, Adam's overpowered Earth's spaceports, he's coming, and you have to get your Dalek allies to—"

She was cut off, as Adam clasped a hand across her mouth. "When we arrive," he said to the IPSA members, "I want the Doctor. Or your hero and savior dies."

The transmission cut off.

"Dalek allies!" the Doctor cried. He gave a small sigh. "Oh, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth! Adam's never going to fall for that. Not in a hundred, million..." His moroseness faded into caution, as he noticed that Jordan had taken the safety off her gun. "Ah. I'm starting to think there's a bit of a problem, here."

"Oh, no problem," said Jordan. "We can't execute you without definite incriminating evidence. And I'd say we just got our incriminating evidence."

Oh, dear. They'd taken that line about the 'Dalek allies' seriously, then?

"I know this looks bad," the Doctor said, "but, believe me, I'm not the Daleks' ally. I'm—"

"Their enemy," agreed Wendy. "We know."

The Doctor frowned, a little confused about why they were still distrustful of him. "Listen. A few... small... miscalculations aside, my plan's still working perfectly. I just need to get—"

"Plan?" Trista asked, crossing her arms. "So you're admitting that you _planned_ to bring the legendary Bunfy Sompters here, to the future, and let her get tortured?"

The Doctor blinked. "Sorry? Tortured? You don't think I _intended—_?"

"We know exactly what you're up to," Jordan hissed at the Doctor. "You wanted to get Adam off Earth. Any way possible. Even if it involved torturing an innocent person." She glared at him. "And don't you dare say the ends justify the means!"

"I did not torture her!" the Doctor insisted. "I never wanted—"

"The evidence speaks for itself," said Marya. "You brought an innocent and very important historical figure from our past into the 39th century, with no military backup or way to defend herself, thus handing a monster like Adam everything he needs to destroy the Slayer line once and for all."

"Thiss iss a disshonorable thing you have done," Freddy rasped.

"Now wait just a second," the Doctor interjected. "I left her with an entire army to—"

"Yeah?" retorted Trista. "A whole army? That she just... _decided_ not to use?"

"Yes!"

"According to Korjensky Conventions, Doctor, you have presented us with enough incriminating evidence that your own life is forfeit," Marya informed the Doctor. "Your actions have endangered the Slayer Institution, this galactic sector, and — if the Daleks spread farther — possibly the entire universe. Since we are at war, your right to a trial is waved, and as the highest ranking Korjensky Officer present, it falls to me to decide the method of your execution. When Adam arrives, we will hand you over in exchange for Bunfy Sompters' life."

"Officer June T. Marya, you're making a mistake!" the Doctor insisted. "She's my friend, and Adam knows it. Even if you deliver me, Adam will never—"

"Is that so?" Marya interjected. She glared at the Doctor, her mouth forming a thin line, anger glimmering in her eyes. "You are a _friend_ of Bunfy Sompters? A friend who drags her into danger, abandons her when she needs it most, and allows her to get hurt in a time and place she knows nothing about? Is that how you treat your friends?"

The Doctor couldn't meet Marya's eyes.

Marya gave him one more icy glare, then turned to the others around her. "We must retrieve Bunfy Sompters and bring her back here, no matter what the cost. I want her alive, safe, and treated with the honor and respect that she deserves. She is to have no further interaction with this… criminal who cares so little for her life. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" shouted all the IPSA members assembled.

"Right, then," sighed the Doctor. He managed to maneuver his hands so that they reached into his pocket, and slipped out his sonic screwdriver. "Suppose this means I'll have to do this all by myself."

He buzzed at the handcuffs. They snapped open, and the Doctor ducked to avoid the shot from Jordan's gun. A shot that came too late, and too sloppily.

"Maloparsh!" Marya shouted.

"What?" cried Jordan, lowering the gun. "He's an unarmed civi! I never actually intended to shoot him!"

She lunged out to grab him, but he tumbled forwards out of her reach and rolled back to his feet, before racing towards the door.

The other Slayers jumped out to try to catch him as well, but the Doctor soniced the steam duct running through the room, and steam hissed out, spraying all the Slayers in the face and obscuring their vision.

"Sorry!" said the Doctor, pausing in the doorway. "But, see, I've got a war to start, two armies to topple, one friend who needs rescuing from Adam, and one friend who needs rescuing from the Daleks. So if you're not going to help me, I'll just have to do it myself!"

"Someone stop him!" shouted Marya.

The Doctor, seeing the rush of girls towards the door, quickly shut it, and locked it tight with his sonic screwdriver. Then he spun on his heel, and ran off down the corridor.

He charged onto the bridge of the starship, where he discovered the purple-haired Vivian woman still sitting at her workstation. She glanced up as he entered, and watched him with suspicion.

"Don't mind me!" said the Doctor, sliding into a nearby chair and beginning to fiddle with the controls. "Ally, remember? Vouched for by Bunfy Sompters? Just here to help out the war effort!"

First things first, Ice Lords never did well with steam. So, better fix that. He located the temperature controls for the room he'd just been inside, and began shutting off the steam.

"You're... the Doctor," said Vivian. "A time-space traveler who wanders around the universe in a blue box. An alien rumored to defend humanity throughout the ages. You've got two hearts, 26 ribs, and you wear an unflattering piece of neckwear called a 'bow tie'. Right?"

"Yes, that's me!" said the Doctor, as he began poking at the temperature controls to make sure that the room in question would cool enough to make Freddy comfortable.

Vivian nodded, double checking a reading on a monitor beside her. "That's what I thought."

The Doctor finished fiddling with the temperature settings, and turned, a bright grin on his face. "Well, since we're getting along so well, where might I find...?"

That was when he noticed a flash from the stun-beam in Vivian's hands, felt the shot run through his body, and he slumped to the ground as the world drifted into darkness.


	16. Chapter 16

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

Amy and Rory had gotten into the secret lab.

Admittedly, they were being led in at gunpoint, but they had gotten in.

The lab wasn't exactly what Amy had expected. She'd been expecting something decidedly alien about the place, like gleaming control panels and holographic images... or maybe a space ship or something... but it looked kind of like a human-run secret government lab.

"What is this place?" Amy asked the soldiers marching them forwards.

The soldiers didn't answer her.

They were escorted to a large, white-walled room, where an older-looking man in a white lab coat holding a clipboard glanced up at them.

"And these would be them, then?" the man asked the soldiers.

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers replied.

"And the thermal imaging scans?" asked the man.

"98.6 degrees core body temperature," the soldiers informed him. "They are human, sir."

The man put down the clipboard on top of a computer terminal, and peered at Amy and Rory a little closer. "Human? Really?"

"Yes," said Amy, "and we've worked out your little scheme. Mr. Big Alien... Person." She pointed at him, trying to make herself seem intimidating and authoritative. "We know you're doing experiments on human beings down here. And we're going to make sure it stops!"

The man sighed, then muttered something beneath his breath that sounded like, "Told her they didn't know anything." Then he offered them a hand.

"Dr. Angleman," he said. "And... don't worry. If you're human, we can't touch you."

Amy and Rory glanced at one another. Then Amy took Angleman's hand and shook it.

"I'm..." she started, scrambling for a fake name.

"Amy," said Angleman. "We heard. And his name would be Rory."

Way to go, Amy. She had now managed to get inside a government lab, give them enough information to make them suspicious, and make sure that they knew her name.

"If you're reporters, I'm afraid there isn't a story, here," said Angleman. "This is a government facility, under constant review from Washington, and we only experiment on Hostile Sub Terrestrials."

"Hostile whats?" asked Amy.

"Animals," Angleman dismissed. He handed her the clipboard, and a pen. "We will, of course, need you to sign a number of confidentiality forms. But once that's done, you can be on your way."

"Just... like that?" asked Rory.

"Government labs aren't nearly as exciting as Hollywood makes them out to be," Angleman told them. "We don't go around killing everyone who finds out about our existence. And as for this place... well, there's nothing particularly remarkable about it. We turn hostile animals into harmless ones using conditioning."

Amy stared at the paper on the clipboard, without reading it. Just thinking. If this was a lab that just experimented on turning harmful animals into harmless ones, then why was it top secret? And why was there so much security?

And what was Project 314?

"We're really very sorry about this," Rory was saying to Angleman. "It was a misunderstanding. You know how... newspapers... can be."

Amy glanced around them. Yes, there were soldiers all over the place, and, yes, Angleman was right there, but... they needed to find some way to get away from all the security so they could snoop around like the Doctor asked.

She scribbled something on the paper, then handed the clipboard and pen to Rory. "What kinds of animals?" she asked Angleman.

Angleman hesitated, and Amy could tell she'd asked the right question.

"They wouldn't be endangered animals, would they?" Amy persisted. "Something the public wouldn't be happy about?"

"On the contrary," came a female voice from behind them. "I think the public would be quite in favor of our little operation, if it were prudent for them to know."

Amy and Rory turned, and found Professor Walsh, now wearing a white lab coat, walking towards them. She paused, a short ways away.

"Well, it seems that you really _are_ interested in my research," she noted. "And I have to say, I'm interested in you. I've been looking over some of the accounts from our teams out in the field, and it looks like you two have been popping up all around this town. Always appearing right before some... major catastrophe."

Amy and Rory looked at one another, neither sure what to say.

"Judging by the accents, I'd say you were Torchwood," said Walsh. "But your complete lack of professionalism makes me think you two are nothing of the sort."

"We're... just journalists," Rory insisted. "We thought there was a story, here, but we were wrong, and... we'll sign anything you want us to."

Walsh ignored him. "And for some reason," she continued, "you seem to know Agent Finn. Even though he claims to have absolutely no knowledge of you."

"Well, we don't... know him, exactly," said Amy, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. "We've just... seen him around a lot." She hesitated, before adding, "With guns. So you can see why we're a little nervous."

"Why don't you do all of us a favor and cut the crap?" Walsh said, leaning back against a table. "Tell us who you're working for and why you're interested in the Initiative."

Amy and Rory looked at one another, again. Then Amy stepped forwards.

"Okay," she said. "The thing is... we're not working for anyone. We just kind of... wander around... saving the world. Sort of... a hobby. And, since your lovely town — and it really is very lovely and nice — is right on the mouth of Hell, we come here... kind of a lot."

Walsh clearly looked like she wasn't buying any of this. "You wander around. Saving the world."

"Yes," said Amy.

"And fighting Hostile Sub-Terrestrials," Walsh added.

Amy blinked. "Hostile Sub-Terrestrials? What's a Hostile Sub-Terrestrial?"

"Monsters," Walsh said. "Animals. Things that go bump in the night."

Oh. Did she mean aliens?

"Yep, that's us!" said Amy. She was thinking furiously. Was that what this Initiative was all about? Fighting aliens and monsters, keeping the human race safe from...

Hang on.

This was starting to sound very similar to something that Buffy had told her, about a year from this particular point in history. About... something that Riley had done... to the Doctor...

Oh, no.

"Just you two?" Walsh asked.

"Just us two!" Amy insisted, swinging her arms nervously. "No one else."

"That's funny," said Walsh, "because one or two of my agents have reported seeing someone else with you. A tall, skinny, awkward-looking man with a funny bow tie."

"Oh, he's—" Rory started, but Amy cut him off.

"John," Amy said. "Our friend John. He sort of... travels around with us, too. Saving the world. Just us three normal human beings, travelling together. But he's not here, right now."

Walsh appraised them, carefully. Her eyes fixed on Amy, suspicion blazing through them.

That was when the door gave a mechanical whirr, and then burst open, a soldier running into the room. "Walsh. Urgent situation. Unidentified HST."

"Then dispatch the usual teams into the field to retrieve it," said Walsh, with the wave of her hand. "I'm busy."

"We did that, Ma'am," said the soldier. "It took down both Agent Carter's Team and Agent Holdman's Team in ten seconds. It's completely indestructible."

Walsh straightened, turning on the soldier. "All of them?"

"That's correct," said the soldier. "No survivors."

Walsh nodded, thoughtfully. "Completely indestructible, completely ruthless. Interesting." She glanced back at Angleman, who nodded at her, then turned to the soldier. "I want it brought down here. Alive. As soon as possible. Where is it, now?"

"Breaking into the Initiative, Ma'am," said the soldier.


	17. Chapter 17

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

"I don't like it," said Ashley. "I'm just putting that in now, before we go through with this. I really, really hate this plan."

"Ash," said Jordan, securing ropes around the unconscious Doctor, "he's a criminal."

"I know, I know," said Ashley. "But... we're IPSA! We're not supposed to hand anyone over to Frankenstein-looking monster-people. Not even criminals."

"It's for Bunfy Sompters," Jordan said, tying off the last rope and putting the Doctor back down onto the ground.

"Who vouched for him," Ashley pointed out. "You saw that transmission. Bunfy Sompters really does seem to be his friend."

"He tried to kill Commander Fredslyr," Marya replied. "Commander Fredslyr might have to be shipped back to Korjensky, if he doesn't recover soon, leaving us one commander down. The Doctor has crippled IPSA, and given Adam the means to destroy us completely. The evidence does not lie."

"The Daleks didn't shoot at him until way late," Jordan reminded Ashley. "And they missed."

"Plus, he didn't want any scans done to discover whether or not he was a Dalek Replicant," Trista added.

"He's got an alien physiology," Ashley argued. "Physiology our scans and exams wouldn't be able to deal with. We'd have thought he was a replicant no matter what."

"That's true," said Vivian, brushing her purple hair behind her ears. "I did a replicant scan on him, after I knocked him out, just to be sure. It came up inconclusive."

"That doesn't change the fact that we know nothing about this 'Doctor', Ashley," Trista interjected. "You saw what he let happen to Bunfy Sompters."

"He... seemed really upset about that," Laura put in.

"The thing is," said Vivian, "I'd just intercepted—"

"Bunfy Sompters vouched for him," Ashley cut in. "That should be enough for us."

"In a garbled transmission," Marya pointed out, "from a planet that, according to the Doctor's own story, shouldn't be able to send transmissions. There's clearly a large number of inconsistencies and mysteries relating to this 'Doctor', but the one thing that we can all agree on is that Bunfy Sompters has to be saved."

"And we've also—" Vivian tried, but once again, she was cut off.

"I agree with Ashley," Wendy put in. "This just feels wrong. I mean, if he really is Bunfy Sompters' friend, she's going to be really mad at us if we do this."

"And the Slayer Constitution says we should treat doctors with respect," said Laura.

"Legally, his life is forfeit, and it is up to the highest ranking officer onboard this ship to decide his fate," Marya said. "I have decided. In terms of Bunfy Sompters, there can be no debate or discussion! We have to make sure she is retrieved and that no further harm comes to her."

"I'm just saying—" Ashley began.

"Look at what has happened to Bunfy Sompters so far!" Marya insisted. "This incredible woman who's done more good for the universe than any of us can even hope to do! She is being tortured, disrespected, treated as if she were simply some... bargaining chip! For an alien! I will not see that happen!" She took a deep breath. "And if I have to go in there, personally, to rescue her from her torment, I will."

The others around her seemed, mostly, chastised by this particular comment. But not Ashley.

"I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve to be saved or treated with honor and respect," Ashley said. "I'm just saying that tying up someone who's clearly her friend and throwing him to an army full of monsters isn't the best idea."

"We are saving Bunfy Sompters, no matter what the cost," said Marya. "I'd give my own life for her. You'd give your own life for her. Every member of Korjensky and IPSA combined would give their lives for her."

"We're not giving _our_ lives, though," Ashley pointed out. "We're giving _his_."

"And who is he?" asked Marya. "What has he done to warrant special treatment? We know nothing of him or his allegiances, nothing that could counteract the incriminating evidence we've just discovered. But we all know Bunfy Sompters. Compared to a legend like her, even the most amazing galactic heroes of our time are just... nothing."

"Whatever he's done," said Ashley, "is second to what he has. Time travel technology. If we give the Doctor to Adam, we're presenting the possibility of trans-temporal conquest to something that looks like it came straight out of a horror film."

"Actually, the thing is—" Vivian started.

"And is that any better than leaving it in _his_ hands?" Trista cut in, pointing at the Doctor. "The guy who brought Bunfy Sompters into the future and risked some massive universe-destroying paradox? The one who let Bunfy Sompters get tortured? Who left Earth when they needed help, so he could come out here to Lasky's Nebula — no one knows how! At which point he spent — who knows how long? — onboard a Dalek space ship, and somehow wound up — not interrogated, not tortured, not exterminated, not anything! Just completely fine! I mean, who walks off a Dalek space ship completely fine?"

"I've gotten a—" Vivian tried, but was, once again, cut off.

"He sets off our sineyic detection readers, doesn't he?" said another Slayer — Gyndra. "That's got to mean something. Maybe he isn't a Dalek agent at all. Maybe he really _does_ have a connection to the Slayers."

"He isn't human," said Trista. "And he's a guy. The Slayers are always human, and they're always women."

"So far!" Gyndra snapped. "Maybe with the number of dead on Earth, and the mortality count out here, there aren't enough human women anymore, and the group-consciousness that is Sineya had to compensate some other way."

"I agree with Trista," said Jordan. "The Doctor's led Bunfy Sompters into the future, where her death could mean not just the complete destruction of IPSA but also the collapse of the universe. He basically confessed to us that her being tortured was part of his plan. He's an enemy, and we should treat him as such."

"Yeah? Well, you can count me out of Bunfy's rescue party," said Ashley. "There is no way that I'm meeting the legendary Bunfy Sompters and saying, 'Hey, guess what? I'm a huge fan, and I just condemned your friend to death.'"

"It's not her friend!" Vivian shouted at them.

All eyes landed on Vivian, and a hush went through the ship.

"I've been doing research, and... the Doctor _is_ a legendary time-space traveler," Vivian said. "A completely trustworthy individual, and a defender of humanity throughout the ages."

Marya gave Vivian a stern look. "I've never heard of him."

"But regardless of all that," Vivian continued, "this _isn't_ the Doctor!"

They all looked down at the restrained so-called Doctor on the floor, then back at Vivian.

"Right before he came in here, I got a message from Earth," Vivian explained to them. "It was very garbled and patchy, but, from what I understood, there was a huge battle, and they're still sifting through the debris and bodies. But they did find the body of one man. A hero who gave his life to try to stop Adam. A man with two hearts, 26 ribs, and a 'bow tie', who matches his exact physical description." She pointed at the unconscious bow tie wearing man. "A man they called 'the Doctor'."

"The Doctor's... dead?" asked Laura.

"The Doctor never left Earth," Vivian confirmed. "The Doctor may be Bunfy Sompter's friend, and he may be a completely trustworthy and noble person, but... whoever we've got here, it's _not_ the Doctor."

Everyone was silent for a moment, letting this sink in.

"He... he didn't sound like a replicant," Wendy put in. "Ashley's right. The one thing replicants don't do is lecture about moral integrity."

"Well, yeah, but he wasn't just lecturing about moral integrity," said Jordan. "He was... purposely trying to freak us out. One word from him, and all military order and procedure went out the window, remember? He made us feel guilty enough to abandon Lasky's Nebula and want to fly off to help Earth."

"Thus handing victory over to the Daleks," Laura whispered.

"Wait, but… if he's not a Dalek Replicant," said Gyndra, "and he's not the Doctor... then who is he?"

Officer Marya gave a long sigh. "I've heard about this sort of thing," she confessed. "In the ancient annals of the Slayer, there was mention of some great evil that could take on the form of dead people. Its goal was to obliterate the Slayer line, completely."

"So he's worse than a Dalek Replicant?" Wendy said. "Geeze."

"I should have seen it sooner," Marya said. "This is precisely how this ancient evil was said to infiltrate the Slayer ranks. By walking amongst us, undetected, then stirring us into an emotional frenzy."

Ashley bent down by the Doctor, and felt for a pulse at his bound wrists. "Are you sure this really isn't the Doctor?" she asked. "This guy does have two hearts. I can feel the double pulse."

"Every time the Doctor shows up," said Vivian, "he always has a blue box nearby. It's got a distinctive energy signature, one that we can trace. I've done a search for that energy signature. It's not here. The evidence is conclusive. The Doctor never made it to Lasky's Nebula."

"What about Bunfy Sompters?" Trista asked. "Is Adam telling the truth when he says he has her?"

"I think he is," Vivian admitted. "We got her thumbprint and a visual identification. Every reading we take from her matches what we already know about Bunfy Sompters."

"She seemed... sure that this was the real Doctor," Laura said.

"It's obvious what must have happened," said Marya. "The actual Doctor saw the situation in this century, decided to get help, and took the legendary Bunfy Sompters here to save the Earth. They got separated. The Doctor was killed, Bunfy was captured, and the ancient mystical evil from the Slayer annals took advantage. Appeared in Lasky's Nebula in the form of this 'Doctor', to try to destroy IPSA completely."

The Slayers nearby all looked at one another, worry on all their faces.

"Right," said Marya. "This makes our job easy. If this isn't the Doctor, and he has no time travel technology, then there can be no objections to handing the imposter over to Adam."

"I object," said Ashley, standing up straight and crossing her arms. "We're still handing over a living creature to a freaky Frankenstein-looking monster thing. And I don't think it's morally right to hand _anyone_ over to a freaky Frankenstein-looking monster thing. Period."

Marya glared at her. "That's an order, Cralmodath."

"Article 17 of the Slayer Constitution," said Ashley. "'If any Slayer is faced with an order she feels is morally wrong, she cannot stop the action, but she has the right to refuse to carry it out herself.' I'm taking that right, and I'm refusing." She narrowed her eyes at Marya. "And if Freddy was in charge, he'd agree with me."

Marya gave Ashley a stern look, but not even she could argue with the Slayer Constitution. She looked across at the other Slayers. "Any other volunteers?"


	18. Chapter 18

Adam couldn't help stretching a smile across his face, as he watched the two Slayers dragging an unconscious Doctor towards him.

"Here," they said, shoving the Doctor onto the floor in front of Adam. "Now. We want Bunfy Sompters."

Adam stepped forwards, and picked the Doctor up. Checking to make sure he was the real thing, that this wasn't some trick. But the sensors and mechanical devices in his body all picked up a binary vascular system and lower body temperature, along with an odd radiation reading that Adam knew meant that the Doctor had travelled through time.

"A different face," Adam verified, "but the same person. Interesting."

The Slayers crossed their arms, and gave Adam that same look he'd seen on the Slayers he'd killed that first day he came back from the dead. A look of defiance and self-confidence.

"I am fascinated by you Slayers," said Adam, as he began to pace in front of them, dragging the Doctor along the floor of the space ship like a rag doll. "It seems that, over time, an ordinary person — one weak and breakable, one so easily manipulated and destroyed — has turned to a god in your eyes. Infallible. Perfect. Buffy Summers." He flicked his eyes over to them. "So perfect you'd do anything for her."

"We upheld our end of the deal," they said. "Now you uphold yours."

"Do you know why she hated me so much?" Adam asked the Slayers. "Your Buffy Summers?" He glanced down at the Doctor. "I locked him away and let him get tortured for two months. I nearly killed him, and she was devastated." Adam glanced back at the Slayers. "Yet here you are. Handing him over to me, in exchange for her life." He grinned. "I'm tempted to give her to you, after all. Just because it would be interesting to watch her rip you apart."

The Slayers shifted into a fighting stance. "Gotta warn you," said one of them, "if you don't hand over Bunfy Sompters, you're going to regret it."

Adam regarded them, vaguely amused at their display. Then his arm morphed into a machine gun. The Slayers, like all the others Adam had faced in this time period, activated their energy-blast repellent armor. Morons. They'd get what they deserved.

Adam opened fire, shooting a stream of bullets through the air. He admired the look of complete and utter horror on their faces, as they keeled over and died.

Beautiful.

Adam's arm morphed back into its normal appearance, and he kicked the bodies to the side. He could use them later, he knew. The Slayers he'd already incorporated into his army were infinitely useful. These two would make excellent additions.

A spark of anticipation appeared in his bio-mechanical mind, and Adam glanced down to find the body he was dragging along the ground beginning to stir. Adam dropped the Doctor onto the floor of the space ship, then turned to his lackeys. "Secure him."

The lackeys rushed over and bent a number of metal bars around the Doctor's already rope-bound limbs. The Doctor groaned, opening his eyes and scanning the area around him. He grimaced, as he took in Adam, the space ship, and his entire new situation.

When his eyes fell upon the destroyed bodies on the ground, however, every trace of lightness was wiped from his face. He grew completely solemn, completely serious, completely upset.

Oh, yes, this was certainly the Doctor.

"And this is where it all leads," the Doctor muttered. "After all questions are answered, all plots uncovered, all truths known, it all boils down to this. Death. Destruction. Slaughter."

"They handed you over," said Adam. "The humans. It's just the same way it was before. Always locked up and betrayed by the race you keep trying to save."

"Just as before," the Doctor said. "Same villains. Same goals. Same plans." He glanced over at Adam. "Different Doctor."

"And yet, I have observed this version of you," said Adam, "as you crossed your own timeline, frantically searching to make sense of a time when everyone was against you. Desperately looking for answers that weren't there."

"Oh, they were there," said the Doctor. "Always, they were there. I simply didn't understand where to look." His eyes shifted across the room. "Where's Elizabeth?"

"In pain," Adam answered. "Torment. Agony. You left her at my mercy. And I've taken advantage."

The Doctor just gave a little laugh.

Adam's smile dropped off his face. This was a reaction he hadn't expected of the Doctor. "You find her pain amusing?"

"I find it amusing," the Doctor corrected, "that after 1800 years, you're still making the same mistakes! You made me angry once before, and you nearly died. You made Elizabeth angry, and you did die. Examine the data, Adam! When you face people with emotions, the worst thing you can possibly do," he leaned in, and shouted, "is to make them angry!"

"Fascinating," said Adam. "Would it make any difference, I wonder, to tell you that her torture is completely self-inflicted? I simply left her alone, and let her own guilt consume her."

The Doctor said nothing.

Adam's eyes met the Doctor's. He could see the undeniable guilt boring into the Time Lord, already. "After you left the Initiative, I noticed a pattern," Adam continued. "Your Buffy Summers kept returning to face me, over and over again, completely unprepared. Seeking me out with no backup or defense. Trying to cause herself injury. Trying to make me hurt her. And here, again, in the future, she did the same thing. Only this time, she explained why." Adam's eyes gleamed. "It's because of you."

And, yes, now Adam could see even more horrible pain crawling into the Doctor's face.

"Her guilt over your treatment," said Adam. "Her love that forced her to blame herself. Her compassion which—"

"Oh, give it a rest!" the Doctor groaned. "If I wanted a lecture on how emotion was a weakness, I'd have dropped by Telos! Just skip the pontification and cut to the chase, already!"

"Very well." Adam turned to his lackeys. "Bring her in."

The lackeys turned and left the room.

"There's something I've been meaning to say to you for years, now, Adam," said the Doctor. He squirmed in his bonds, and glared up in Adam's eyes. "You are — all meanness intended — completely and utterly thick!"

Adam didn't bother to give in to such an obvious provocation. He had no anger to provoke.

"I've found my answers," said the Doctor. "But it seems you haven't found yours. You spent an entire year manipulating others and you never once saw — never once imagined — that you were being manipulated yourself."

"I understood what you were trying to do," said Adam. "What you're still trying to do. I can always see through your manipulations, Doctor. I will always overcome them."

"Not me!" the Doctor said. "Think back! Remember! All those little things that seemed just a bit too convenient. All those little coincidences that seemed to work in your favor. You were being played in just the same way that you were playing everybody else. _That's_ the truth you didn't see, Adam. _That's_ the truth I've been returning to Sunnydale, over and over again, so I could uncover."

"The Slayer is capable of many things," said Adam, "but this is beyond her."

"Not Elizabeth, either, you dolt!" said the Doctor. "Can't you see? Don't you notice any connection? All these different elements from the 39th century, all being projected, backwards through time, into the 21st? The Carflodashians. The Daleks. The fixation with me. The fixation with the Slayers. Your entire life has been as a gear-cog in someone else's machine!"

"It is interesting," said Adam, "that you feel you have to make up excuses for your own inability to kill me. Your inability to escape. Your own weaknesses."

"You first learned about me when I was inside the Initiative," the Doctor pointed out. "But you didn't put me there. You saw I was in there, saw I could travel through time, and took advantage."

"The humans trapped you," said Adam. "I simply realized your potential."

"Not the humans!" said the Doctor. "The Daleks! They sent a temporal team back in time to exterminate you, but they couldn't do it. So they got clever. Began to manipulate you. Made sure that you read up on every single part of my biology, so that you could defeat me, while I defeated you. Fighting to our mutual destruction."

"My plan," Adam said.

"And the Daleks'," the Doctor insisted. "They knew that Elizabeth and myself leading an army against you and your lot would wipe all of us out. I thought it was Earth's army the Daleks wanted us to lead, but when I learned what IPSA was, the strategy became obvious. You'll wipe out Elizabeth, myself, and IPSA, while we wipe out you and your army, and — who wins, then, Adam? Tell me that. Who wins in that situation?"

Adam hesitated.

"The Daleks have used you," said the Doctor. "They've manipulated the situation so that your army and IPSA will both be obliterated, allowing the Daleks to waltz right in and take this galactic sector for themselves. No opposition. No troubles. No nothing. Think about it logically, Adam. It makes sense!"

"You say that the Daleks have used me," Adam said. "Manipulated me. And yet, Buffy Summers has assured me that you two are allies. Which means that you were the one who manipulated me, all along. And I should destroy you."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Adam. "You don't believe the Daleks are my allies. Any more than I do."

"A bluff," Adam concurred. "Just as are your own words, now."

"I'm not bluffing, Adam," the Doctor promised. "Every single word I've told you is the truth." He gave Adam a very serious stare. "The Daleks are your real enemies. They've been mucking about in your own past, reshaping who and what you are, so you could fight their battles for them."

"But I have the data that disproves that," said Adam. "The only one who altered my past was you, Doctor. Your two companions. Spies, Mother called them."

"Ah," said the Doctor. "That's different."

"You claim that these Daleks sent a team into my own past," said Adam. "Tried to exterminate me. But could not. An interesting theory. It's a shame it has no bearing on reality."

The Doctor blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"I saw the Daleks when they arrived in Sunnydale," said Adam. "I saw their destruction and carnage, and thought it beautiful. But I never encountered them."

"Never encountered them?" the Doctor cried. "You mean to say that when the Daleks were swarming through Sunnydale, they never once sent a team after you? Never once tried to exterminate you? Never once tried to get rid of you?"

"Never once," Adam agreed. He grinned. "Your answers don't live up to expectation, Doctor."

The Doctor frowned. "But why?" he asked himself. "Why else would they send two teams of Daleks back to that exact point in the 21st century if they weren't...?" The Doctor trailed off. "Ah." He cringed. " _Vastly_ underestimated her importance, then."

The swish of doors opening, as Adam's lackeys re-entered the room, shifting uneasily. Adam turned on them. The two were empty handed, no Buffy Summers in sight.

"Well?" Adam demanded. "Where is Buffy Summers?"

"She's... gone," they confessed.


	19. Chapter 19

Buffy had been bored out of her mind since the transmission to the Slayer Space Ship (seriously — Slayer Space Ship? How cool was that!). She'd been expecting Adam to torture her, or string her up somewhere, or at least knock her unconscious, but... nope! She'd just been shoved into some space ship compartment with a lot of really loud machinery, and ignored. Apparently, the Adam-lookalikes had better things to do than concern themselves with her.

Which didn't exactly do a whole lot for her ego.

And as if to add insult to injury — like an extra little "Na-na! You can't touch us!" — Buffy had even been left her crossbow. Which lay a few feet away from her. Not that it made much difference to her boredom.

Buffy had begun by singing herself happy birthday in every language she knew. Which took about one minute, considering she didn't know that many languages. Then she'd started imagining all the ways vampires could hide in this space ship compartment thingy she was in, and how she'd go about attacking them. That took a lot longer. But then, somewhere in the middle of thinking about how to ambush three vamps hidden behind that little circular tank in the center, her mind started drifting. Her thoughts wandered back to those horrible memories, when she'd discovered what had happened to the Doctor down in the Initiative. When she'd found out what she'd allowed to happen to...

No!

Happy Birthday! That was what Buffy should be singing! That was what she should be thinking about! Happy Birthday!

"Happy birthday to me," Buffy sang. "Happy..."

_You keep looking for the Doctor. I'll go catch and contain Hostile 29, then I'll come back and see if I can help you find him._

"...birthday to me!"

_I don't know what happened to the Doctor! He was perfectly fine at first, and next thing I knew, he was so desperate for food, he electrified a woman just so he could get his hands on a chocolate bar._

"Happy birthday..."

_Reduced to animal instincts. No higher brain functions, no sense of self awareness. Just base hatred and aggression. Stuck attacking the one person he hates most._

"...dear Buffy!"

_I don't know what happened up here, but down in the Initiative... the Doctor nearly died trying to get to you._

Buffy swallowed. She could hear her voice cracking, so she started singing a little louder. "Happy..."

_Adam, in the moonlight, holding a limp and unresponsive Doctor._

"...birthday..."

_That feeling of anger coursing through her, as she faced Riley in her dorm room, that feeling of darkness spreading through her as she knew... beyond a shadow of a doubt... that if she hit him, she would kill him._

"...to..."

_I trust you with my life. I trust you with the universe. I trust you with all of time and space. You're my friend. I'll never stop trusting you, Buffy Anne Summers. I promise, I will never stop trusting you._

Buffy stopped singing, as she burst into very un-Slayer-like tears. She curled up against the floor, into as tight a ball as she could, and just let it all out, let every thought and memory she'd shoved away inside her mind and stuck a 'get upset about later' post-it-note on the outside pour from her with heartfelt sobs.

"I'm sorry," she said, through her tears, because she'd never said it to him and she should have... so many times. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"

She just stayed like that for... she didn't know how long... letting the words tumble off her lips as she said them, over and over again, letting the sorrow and grief and anger all pile up and burst out of her like a tidal wave, unable to be stopped.

A bang resounded through the room, and light flooded Buffy's eyes. Buffy stifled her sniffles all at once, then looked up to find two girls she'd never laid eyes on, before, standing in the doorway.

"Oh, God, she's hurt!" said one of them — a girl with a blond ponytail and tall, limber body — rushing over and crouching by her. "It's okay. You're going to be fine. We're here to help."

Buffy cursed herself five thousand times inside her head for letting the IPSA rescue committee catch her in the middle of her first serious guilt-o-thon since the Doctor's incarceration in the Initiative.

"Did they torture her even more?" asked another girl — a smaller, mousy looking one with dust brown hair braided into pigtails. "Did they... torture her all the way here?"

"I don't know," said Miss Ponytail, reaching around to find the end of the iron bar that Adam's army had twisted around Buffy's torso. "Probably. She might be in some kind of shock."

Okay, whatever her Slayer street-cred used to be, it was way down in the negative digits, now.

"No, no, it's cool," said Buffy, twisting around to grab the end of the iron bar, and shoving it into the little rivet she'd found on the floor, earlier. "I got this."

Then she gritted her teeth and spun around, letting the iron bar unspool from around her arms.

"You guys are... Slayers, right?" Buffy asked, as the girls began to help her. "IPSA?"

Her arms popped out from the iron bar, and Buffy rolled free.

"Yeah," said Miss Ponytail. "I'm Jordan. She's Laura. We're the rescue party."

Buffy wiped away the tears and pretended she'd never broken down. Then she reached over to her legs and unbent the iron bars with much more ease. Within a few seconds, Buffy was completely unrestrained. She flipped herself back onto her feet. "Okay. Great. Let's go."

The two girls looked at each other, clearly a little startled. They got up from the floor.

"You... you could get free the whole time?" Jordan asked.

"Of course I could!" said Buffy. "I mean, they were just iron bars. It wasn't like Adam used steel or anything." She shrugged. "Can't you guys do that kind of stuff, too?"

"Well, yeah!" said Jordan. "I just thought... I mean, you're from, you know, the primitive days. Before genetic engineering. I figured bending iron would be a little out of your league."

"How... if you could break free the whole time... how did Adam still manage to torture you?" Laura asked.

"I let him," Buffy said. Then added, quickly, "I mean, I had to make it look convincing! If I'd stuck with the Doctor's plan, I'd have just walked up to Adam and been all, 'Hi, guess what? The Doctor's in Lasky's Nebula. See ya!' and then run away. Which would have been much less big on the torture, and much more big on the not-workingness. This was the best way to get Adam off Earth."

Jordan looked Buffy up and down, as if trying to assess the damage. "Look, are you sure you're okay?" she asked. "It's just... you were crying, and..."

Buffy spun around, and grabbed her crossbow up off the floor. She didn't want to talk about this with these two Slayers. This was ass-kicking time, not guilty moping time.

"Let's go," said Buffy, walking toward the door. She hesitated, in the doorway, then glanced over her shoulder at Jordan. "Where... do we go to get out?"

"Head towards the outer hull," said Jordan, as she and Laura raced forwards to catch up with Buffy. "We've got a bubble."

Buffy had no idea what that meant, but she decided she'd find out soon enough. She raced down the corridor of the ship, the white gleaming tiles a little... _too_ like the Initiative for Buffy, right now.

"Where's the Doctor?" Buffy asked, as she turned a corner. Because there was no way that the Doctor would just sit around letting other people rescue her. "Distracting Adam or something?"

Jordan and Laura looked at one another, nervously. Then they looked back at Buffy.

"This is kind of hard to say, but... the Doctor isn't..." Jordan looked away.

"He's dead," Laura whispered.

Buffy stopped in her tracks, and frowned. She checked the mental light switch in her head. It was on, just like before, warm and fuzzy. She gave a laugh. "Uh, no, he's really not."

Laura swallowed. "Bunfy—"

"Buffy."

"The Doctor you thought you knew," Laura continued, "he wasn't... I mean..."

"He was a decoy," said Jordan. "Some deception tactic. The real Doctor never left Earth. He's dead."

Buffy blinked. Then blinked again. "What?"

"The Doctor that you saw with us, when Adam radioed in, was... not... the Doctor," said Jordan. "Vivian said we got a transmission. The actual Doctor is dead, back on Earth. This one was just... I dunno what it was, exactly. A monster or something."

Buffy's eyes widened. Her jaw fell open. "You... you handed him over to Adam, didn't you? You... you actually..."

"He wasn't really—" Jordan started.

Buffy swung around, and began to sprint through the ship. Jordan and Laura raced after her, calling for her to wait, stop. Jordan grabbed her by the arm and spun her around.

Buffy's eyes were venomous as they bore into Jordan's. She yanked her arm away. "Get away from me."

"Bunfy—"

"You handed the Doctor over to Adam," Buffy growled. "That's all I need to know."

"It wasn't the Doctor!" said Jordan. "The transmission—"

" _I_ sent that transmission!" Buffy hissed. "I sent it on a frequency that I _knew_ would be intercepted by the Daleks! I was trying to get them to attack Adam's ships! If you got the message, it was only because the Daleks forwarded it to you, as a trick. And you were too stupid to see past it."

Jordan and Laura looked at one another. Then back at Buffy. "What?"

"The Doctor is one of my best friends in the whole world — the whole universe," said Buffy. "And you just handed him — the _real_ him — over to Adam. So he could be killed!"

Laura's jaw fell open.

Jordan just absorbed Buffy's anger with a defiant calmness. "So... let me get this straight," Jordan said. "You sent us a transmission. From Earth. That we weren't supposed to believe. Without using any catchphrases or codes to show it was a fake. We received it, and acted on the information." She crossed her arms. "I don't get how any of this is our fault."

"You should have known!" Buffy insisted.

"How?" Jordan asked.

Buffy's hands clenched into fists, and she seethed, her mind searching but failing to find a good answer. And it was only made worse by the fact that she remembered Gratewell mentioning something about codes, and her blowing him off. But that... didn't matter! She swung around. "I don't have time for this."

"Okay, okay!" Jordan conceded, with a sigh. "I get it. Rescue the Doctor now, argue about it later."

Buffy didn't stop as she walked away. "I don't need your help."

Jordan's calmness faltered a hair. "What do you mean, you don't—?"

"I mean," Buffy hissed, "that I don't need your help!" She looked back at them, over her shoulder, her eyes dark and biting, her hands curled into fists.

Anger ran through her like ice. A cold numbness that draped across her body, an icy grip that crystallized across her fingers and toes, tingling through her lips, frosting her tongue with venom.

Laura and Jordan instinctively backed away.

"The Initiative made me ashamed to call myself a human," Buffy told them. "But you've made me ashamed to call myself a Slayer."

And with a burst of speed, she swung around and sped off down the corridor.

Jordan and Laura just stood there, staring at where Buffy had been. Barely able to breathe. Their hands were shaking, their entire bodies tense, their faces frozen in shock and horror and bewilderment.

"Bunfy Sompters hates me," Laura whispered.

Jordan recovered from her shock, and fixed a determined look on her face. She began to run after Buffy's retreating form. "Come on!"

"But she said…"

"I know what she said!" said Jordan. She glanced over her shoulder at Laura. "But we're still Slayers! And we've got a job to do!"


	20. Chapter 20

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

The entire Initiative — that was what this organization was called, right? — was on full lock-down, due to the mysterious invading alien creature breaking in through the elevator shaft, and the soldiers had all gone to secure the perimeter. Leaving Amy and Rory alone, locked in this room. With no guards.

Total stroke of good luck.

Amy spun around to face her husband. "Well? Did you do it?"

Rory, by way of response, held up the small swipe card he'd picked out of Angleman's pocket. Just the way that Amy had asked him to, on the note she'd scribbled onto the clipboard.

Amy smiled, and snatched the card out of his hands. She ran to the door locking them inside the room, and swiped it through the reader. The door whirred, and opened. "Time to find out what's really going on," Amy told Rory, ushering him forwards.

Rory nodded, following her out of the door and down the corridor. "Do you... know what they're actually doing here?" he whispered, as they snuck around, trying to find something suspicious.

Amy tugged Rory around a corner, their backs up against the wall, both barely breathing as a troop of Initiative soldiers stormed past. Once they were gone, Amy slipped back into the corridor, Rory following.

"At a guess, kidnapping and torturing aliens," she whispered.

Rory hesitated. "That's... something we should probably stop, isn't it?"

Amy didn't answer, because... she wasn't actually sure they _could_ stop it, due to those stupid laws of time.

"The Doctor wants us to find the 314 Project," said Amy. "Let's just... find it."

She slipped into the main area of the Initiative, and was shifting her eyes around the room, trying to find some records room or something, when she noticed... something odd.

Every single person nearby — both soldiers and scientists — were focused on the elevator shaft that Amy and Rory had come down. Awaiting, Amy guessed, this alien that was trying to break in.

Except for Professor Walsh, who was strolling out of an area completely separate from all the others.

Why would Walsh leave Amy and Rory alone and not take care of this emergency? What was so important in that room that Walsh would rather go there than to the room that everyone nearby was frantically rushing into and out of?

Amy waited until Walsh had ducked into the extremely popular people-rushing-into-and-out-of room, then tugged Rory along after her.

"Where—?" Rory started.

"Suspicious door!" Amy hissed back, as they passed through the Initiative undetected. And as they got closer, Amy could see that printed over the suspicious door was the phrase: "RESTRICTED AREA".

Amy looked both ways, but everyone was still focused on the situation unfolding nearby. Then she and Rory darted forwards towards the door, and Amy swiped Angleman's card through the reader. The door buzzed, and Amy pushed it open, as she and Rory ran inside.

"I really... really don't know about this," Rory said, shutting the door behind him. "What makes you think this has anything to do with...?"

He stopped, as he noticed the number of the lab door in front of them. The number that Amy was already staring at.

Lab 314.

Amy grinned at him, barely containing her excitement. Rory gave her his familiar worried look, but she thought she could see a spark of enthusiasm somewhere behind it all.

"Come on!" she said, edging past the not-yet-installed card reader nearby, and pushing open the door to lab 314. "Let's see what this big secret..."

She stopped, as her eyes fell on the contents of the lab. There, on the table, was a dismembered human cadaver. But... not just that. It was... pieces of a human body... stitched together with pieces carved from (what looked like) various different monsters. All enlaced with a complex set of mechanical circuitry.

"...is," Amy finished.

* * *

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

It was completely typical.

The Doctor was trying to convince Adam that Adam had been used, that the Daleks were behind everything, and that Adam should stop trying to go after the Doctor and start going after the Daleks. Adam, meanwhile, was — well, okay, he looked like he was giving the idea some consideration, but it wasn't like that would help the Doctor at all. After all, the more Adam realized that the Daleks had manipulated his own past, the more he was going to realize that he really needed time travel. Right now.

Which involved making the Doctor a brain-dead vegetable.

(Buffy should never have trusted IPSA. She might be able to trust Giles, Willow, and Xander, but she couldn't trust the human race. Not with the Doctor's life. Not with anything.)

Buffy stood up on the guardrail that was hanging above where Adam and the Doctor were situated.

The Doctor noticed her, then determinately fixed his eyes somewhere else, babbling even faster to distract Adam so she could make a strategic getaway. Which was also very typical Doctor. Buffy knew that the next step would be trying to get Adam to torture him so Adam wouldn't torture her.

"Adam!" Buffy shouted.

Adam and the two other Frankensteinian monsters in the room turned their heads to look at her. Adam's eyes surveyed her with a calculated, clinical detachment, as if trying to deduce the motives behind her every action. The other two darted out the side doors, probably rushing to climb up here and apprehend her.

"Let him go," Buffy commanded Adam. "Or I'll destroy you."

"I see," said Adam. He grabbed the Doctor by his tweed jacket, holding him up like a ragdoll. He gave Buffy a challenging smile. "Destroy me, then."

"Have you listened to a word I've said?" the Doctor demanded of Adam. "The Daleks are trying to make you—"

"Then they are fools," said Adam. "I accept their gift of knowledge and use it to my own advantage. Your TARDIS, my army, and your lifetime of experiences will allow me to take their place."

Buffy gave a sigh. "I told you this wasn't going to work, Doctor," she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Frankensteinian guards rushing towards her on either side of the bridge. She swung herself over the railing and twisted through the air, landing on her feet not far from the Doctor and Adam. Crossbow still in hand. "I mean, you specifically gave me your TARDIS key right before you locked yourself in the Initiative. Even the Daleks warned you that was a huge giveaway."

Adam looked between the two, curiously.

"Elizabeth," said the Doctor, "don't—"

"Doctor," Buffy said. "I broke. I'm sorry. Adam made me tell him everything. He knows about your connection with the Daleks. He knows how you're trying to destroy IPSA."

"IPSA. Your own future," Adam reminded Buffy, a small grin on his face. "Your Slayers."

Buffy felt a surge of cold, hard anger run through her as she looked at the restrained Doctor in Adam's clutches. "They'll never be _my_ Slayers," she growled.

Adam seemed amused by this. "Fascinating. You really do disavow your own kind because of him." He shook the Doctor in front of Buffy.

Buffy took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves. "Here's the deal. You let the Doctor go, and maybe the Daleks will let you live. They're on their way over here, right now, mounting a rescue operation, and they're way smarter than you are."

"That remains to be seen," said Adam.

Buffy crossed her arms. "They had you completely convinced that they were the Doctor's enemies. They had you totally sure that you were the one keeping the Doctor in the Initiative. And you never suspected anything. I mean, how stupid can you be, Adam? The Doctor never stays anywhere unless he wants to. You were tricked for two months, and you had no idea."

Adam appraised the situation, carefully, thinking through the possibilities. His eyes flicked to an air-projection nearby, which was scrolling data at an incredibly fast speed. An air projection the Doctor had already been studying for some time.

"You can read that data," the Doctor said, noticing Adam's interest. "The Daleks are coming here. Very fast. _They_ are your enemies, Adam. Not me. Not Elizabeth. The question remains — what are you going to do, now?"

Adam dropped the Doctor onto the ground, where he fell with an annoyed, "ouch!" Then Adam reached out for Buffy.

Buffy flipped out of his grasp, then tried to slip to the side and dive down to scoop up the Doctor, but the two monsters that had been chasing her before now leapt down from the guardrail, grabbing her by her arms and keeping her in place.

The crossbow clattered to the floor.

"I'm beginning to believe," Adam said to Buffy, stepping towards her, "that this entire plan is your own. Why else would you be so persistent about wanting me to harm you? Some residual guilt, no doubt, for your leaving the Doctor for so long at my mercy."

"Adam," the Doctor warned, "if you harm her, I promise—"

"Buffy Summers," said Adam, surveying Buffy, carefully. "I've been reading up on your history. The most important and influential military tactician of her time. Possibly the most important there's ever been." He grinned. "It's a shame, for your sake, that history got it wrong."

Buffy glared at him.

"Spike was right," said Adam. "Your strength lies in your friends. Without them, you are powerless. Your plans fail, your ideas are useless, your emotions cripple you." He took a step towards her. "You may be history, Buffy Summers. But history can change."

"Too bad you haven't," Buffy said, still struggling to break free from the two monsters holding her. "What's the plan this time, braniac? You create an army of mutants, kill me, turn me into one of you, then use my own knowledge of the Doctor against him? Because that was totally not at all what you were doing before!"

"A good plan survives the test of time," said Adam.

"Uh-huh," said Buffy. "And this is the same 'good plan' that completely failed 1800 years ago, right?" She glanced over at the Doctor. "Can you believe this...?"

Buffy stopped. And stared.

Because the Doctor wasn't there anymore.

Adam noticed Buffy's unease, and turned his head, realizing that the Doctor was gone. He snapped his head back around to the two monsters restraining Buffy. "Why didn't you stop him?"

The two monsters released Buffy and began walking towards Adam, and... they did seem kind of stiff, didn't they? Not exactly as graceful as they should have been.

"You are Adam," one said, in a monotone. It raised up its hands. "You will be exterminated."

Okay, that was bad.

Buffy backed up a few steps, her eyes darting around, trying to figure out how the Daleks had gotten in and where she should run to, when she was tugged back and around a corner.

"I hate that they say, 'exterminate,'" Laura's voice complained, in a whisper. "It's so... Daleky."

"Well, it is Dalek technology," the Doctor pointed out, as he jumped out of the bent-back iron bar and cut-through ropes that Laura had undone from around his torso. "Robomen will always think like Daleks, even when the technology's been altered so the Robomen are fighting for the other side."

Buffy blinked, not really sure if she believed her eyes. She was being urged forwards by Jordan, who handed her back her dropped crossbow, as the Doctor and Laura turned to greet them.

"Okay, is this confuse Buffy day, or what?" asked Buffy, taking the crossbow. She glanced over her shoulder. "Those two guys, they were..."

"Robomen," the Doctor explained. "Or rather, Robomen-like. Robomen-ish. Stolen Dalek technology used by these two lovely women so they could get me out."

"You didn't think we'd just let him get butchered, did you?" Jordan asked, letting go of Buffy's arm. "We're IPSA. If he's innocent, we have to rescue him."

"We don't just stand aside and do nothing while innocent people are tortured," Laura agreed. "We've got a sacred duty to defend this galactic sector from the forces of darkness. We take that seriously."

Buffy was a little stunned. She opened her mouth to reply, but heard the heavy clomp of footsteps behind her. Adam.

She grabbed the Doctor's hand with her free one, and began to run, Laura and Jordan following close behind. They turned down a second corridor, but a clang and rumble sounded overhead. Jordan swore.

"Door mechanisms!" she shouted, as the bulkhead in front of them clanged shut.

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and buzzed it against the bulkhead door, but it didn't budge. "Deadlock sealed."

Buffy dropped the crossbow, leaned down and tried to pry it open, but failed. She glared at the other two Slayers. "You've got super-strength. Help me!"

"I doubt the suction pressure mechanisms would allow you to force the door open," Adam said, as he strolled towards them, a sinister smile on his face. "Which makes you all trapped right here. With me. Two of you would do anything to ensure that Buffy Summers remains alive. Buffy Summers would do anything to ensure the Doctor remained alive. And as for the Doctor..." Adam's smile widened into a grin, as his arm morphed into a machine gun. "We all know how far you'd go to save a single human—"

The Doctor buzzed the sonic screwdriver above his head, and the clang and rumble resonated through the corridor, as a second bulkhead clapped shut just in front of where Adam was standing.

The resonant bang of bullets colliding with the bulkhead echoed through the hallway.

The Doctor turned to Buffy, his eyes twinkling, his entire posture imploring her to tell him how terribly clever he'd been.

"Uh, you do realize we're trapped, now, right?" Buffy asked.

"Well, yes," the Doctor admitted. "But, on the other hand, we are now trapped somewhere that Adam isn't. Which is far better than being trapped somewhere that Adam is." The Doctor adjusted the sonic, and buzzed it at the second bulkhead. "And if I do this..."

There was a heavy thud-clang that roared through the air from either side of them, and a faint whiff of smoke floated through the air.

"Emergency system," the Doctor said. "Disables the override control switch on the bridge. No way Adam could ever get in here, now."

"You know, that's not nearly as comforting as you think," Buffy said. "I wasn't bluffing, Doctor. The Daleks really are coming here, and that means we need to get off this ship. Like, right now."

"Yes, I read the data," the Doctor agreed, bouncing on his feet, smiling. "But I'm sure I'll think of a plan by the time they arrive."

"They're not going to need to arrive!" Buffy insisted. "They're going to blow the ship up!"

The Doctor gave a small shrug. "Oh, I very much doubt that."

"I sent a message to IPSA, specifically intended for the Daleks to intercept it," said Buffy. "A warning that you were dead, and the Doctor they had was a decoy. It said that Adam had tortured me into confessing everything that had happened in Sunnydale in 2000, and had hijacked a fleet of Earth ships to come out here and destroy the Daleks."

"The Daleks would never have believed that!" Jordan pointed out. "They had the Doctor captive onboard their ship. They'd have known—"

"That there was some doubt as to whether or not I was really the Doctor," said the Doctor. "Just the way you lot did."

"Which meant that the Daleks would have paused before exterminating the Doctor," said Buffy, "if only long enough to run a scan."

"Thus buying him time to escape," Laura realized.

"And get picked up by you IPSA guys, who would have gotten my message about the Doctor needing to be saved," said Buffy. "Then the Doctor could rescue me, when Adam's ship arrived, and we could figure out some way to gain the upper hand, again." She gave a small sigh, turning to the Doctor. "It almost worked, too. If IPSA hadn't handed you over to Adam."

"Well, yes, I suppose it did," the Doctor said. "Although, to be fair, your plan only worked because the Daleks wanted it to."

Buffy blinked. "Huh?"

"You said it yourself," said the Doctor, spinning around to Jordan. "The Daleks wanted me onboard your ship."

"Yeah, but... why?" asked Jordan. "If you're not a Replicant."

"Easy! The Daleks wanted Adam to attack IPSA," the Doctor replied. "Best way to do that? Make sure I wound up on an IPSA ship."

"IPSA?" asked Buffy. "Not the Earth Military?"

"Ah, no, I got that one a bit wrong," said the Doctor. "Sorry about that."

Buffy nodded. "So the Daleks _did_ send you that cell phone on purpose. To make sure you came out here."

"Probably," the Doctor agreed. "Lure me out here, lure Adam out here. Mutual destruction, everyone dies, slaughter and bloodbath for all — Daleks love that sort of thing."

"And the Daleks weren't worried that Adam would destroy _them_?" asked Buffy.

The Doctor's forehead creased in thought. "Apparently not," he muttered, pondering the matter over.

Buffy crossed her arms. "You can think later, Doctor. The only reason the Daleks need the two of us is to get rid of Adam. But now the two of us are on this ship, with Adam. And once the Daleks realize that, this ship's gonna go boom. The Daleks can get rid of their three greatest enemies all at once."

"Oh, the Daleks have more than realized who's on this ship," the Doctor said. "Those transmissions you sent from Earth were all intercepted, after all. If they got through, it was only because the Daleks let them through." He pointed the sonic at Jordan and Laura. "The first one, to make sure you lot didn't kill me. The second — the one that claimed I was dead — to make sure you didn't trust me, after I told you what the Daleks were up to. The third — well, I think they wanted to know what Adam was planning."

"Which means that this ship's going to be all kerblewy any second now," said Buffy. "And we've got to get off of it."

The Doctor grinned a little wider. "Haven't destroyed the ship, yet, have they?" he asked, bouncing on his toes.

Buffy frowned. That was a good point.

"There was a reason the Daleks brought you to this century," the Doctor told Buffy. "And I think I've worked out what that reason is."

Laura gaped at him. "You mean... _you_ weren't the one who brought Bunfy here? It was the Daleks?"

"Buffy," Buffy corrected.

"I thought he called you Elizabeth," Jordan pointed out, nodding at the Doctor.

"He does, but you're not allowed to," said Buffy. "My name's Buffy. Not Bunfy. Not Elizabeth. Buffy. And yeah, the Daleks brought me here. But they only did that because they wanted me to get rid of Adam. Like the Doctor said, earlier."

The Doctor clasped his hands behind his back, and gave Buffy a very serious stare. "I believe I might have made a small miscalculation."

"Okay," said Buffy, thinking fast. "Is this one of the tons of other small miscalculations you've just confessed to making, or is this some separate one I don't know about?"

"Only one of us was locked in the Initiative," the Doctor reminded her. "Adam may have lots of information on me, but he has almost none on you."

Buffy stared at him. "Huh?"

"The Daleks want two things," the Doctor began.

"To get rid of Adam and to get rid of IPSA," Buffy cut in. "I know."

"To get rid of Adam," the Doctor corrected, "and to gain IPSA's power."

IPSA's power. Oh, no. Because... if the Slayer was a baby Time Lord...

"They want _you_ , don't they?" Buffy asked the Doctor. "Just like Adam. They want to, I don't know, do what those Shadow Whatevers did to the human race — putting the soul of the Slayer into us. Except with you pouring your essence into the Daleks, and—"

"The power of the Slayers," the Doctor said, "is not their Time Lord qualities. It's the balance between that and the human element. That's what makes them so unique. So incredible."

"Yeah, we're awesome, I get that," said Buffy. "So how're the Daleks planning to get this power of the Slayer for themselves, if it involves needing one part Time Lord, one part human, and no parts Dalek?"

The Doctor met her eyes with his own, their green depths shining with sorrow and empathy. "Through you."


	21. Chapter 21

"Woah, woah, woah!" said Buffy, waving her arms around. "Just... no. I mean... no! I get that I did a whole magic thing that brought out the true power of the First Slayer, and that's super impressive, but..."

"That's not why they wanted you," the Doctor agreed. "After all, they've been trying to get you since that first time they invaded Sunnydale. And that was long before you defeated Adam." He gave a small laugh. "In truth, Elizabeth, you're far more powerful the way you are, now, than the way you were when you took down Adam two days ago."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Buffy protested. "All I know about is how to stake vampires! And there aren't any vampires in the future. You said it yourself — there is no possible reason the Daleks could want my brain!"

The Doctor sighed. "That was before I knew about IPSA. And, more importantly, before I knew the Daleks knew about it."

"Huh?"

The Doctor turned to Jordan. "How long have you been fighting the Daleks out here?"

"A hundred and fifty years," said Jordan.

The Doctor turned back to Buffy. "One hundred and fifty years. One hundred and fifty years they've been fighting, and the Daleks have gained no ground whatsoever. The Daleks call the Slayers the Vretchip Cruptor. The Impenetrable Barrier."

Laura and Jordan stood up straight and tall at the title, as if it were a badge of honor that each of them wore.

"That's incredible, Elizabeth," the Doctor continued. "That never happens. Even during the Time War, boundaries crumbled, time zones shattered, and the front line constantly shifted. Yet here, facing a group of women who read 'human' on all Dalek scans, the Daleks have been halted."

Buffy glanced over at Jordan and Laura, trying to take this all in. Then she shook her head. "Okay, I think it's time for hyper-explanation mode. What's going on?"

"A hundred and fifty years ago, the Daleks came to the 39th century to attack the Galactic Federation," the Doctor said, "but they encountered a group of humans that didn't exist before the Time War. A group of human women that were strong, well trained, strategic — able to move and think in ways the Daleks didn't expect."

"Like Adam and the Carflodashians!" Buffy said. "Adam has totally screwy data on the Carflodashians, so he always underestimates them."

"At first, that was true," the Doctor agreed. "And the Daleks assumed that was all there was to it. So the Daleks learned. Studied what the Slayer was and what she could do. They thought this would allow them to gain the upper hand. But... well, you can see. A hundred and fifty years later, and nothing. The Daleks still can't get past them."

"We fight for freedom and justice," said Jordan. "We have a strength they can't hope to match."

"They have a role model," the Doctor told Buffy. "Someone they look up to. Someone they all try to emulate. And while they have that role model, that purpose, that inspiration, they will always have hope. They will always have strength. They will always strive to push themselves that much harder, make themselves that much better. Ensure they live up to their legacy."

Buffy met the Doctor's sweet green eyes with her own. Oh, yes. Buffy knew about role models like that. She knew about role models like that all too well.

"Well, I know who _my_ role model is," said Buffy. "Who's theirs?"

The Doctor gave Buffy a pointed look.

Buffy looked down at her borrowed clothes, and sighed. "Oh, don't tell me it's Emily Dickinson!" she said, waving her arms in exasperation. "I mean, I know Owen was all obsessed with her, but—"

"Bunfy Sompters," Laura breathed, in a sort of enraptured awe.

"Buffy Summers," Buffy corrected, automatically, without glancing back at Laura. "No, but, seriously, Doctor, Emily Dickinson's just a poet, she couldn't..." That was when she processed what Laura actually said. She spun around. "Hang on, what?"

"It's you," said Laura. "We all want to be like you."

"Bunfy Sompters," Jordan confirmed. "The most brilliant strategist of her day. The one who battled off impossible odds, and always managed to come out on top. The destroyer of Olvikan, the vanquisher of the Abomination, the defender of Earth. It's said she faced down the essence of pure evil and still managed to emerge the victor."

Wow, these guys had exaggerated her victories! Essence of pure evil? That was a seriously melodramatic way of saying that she staked a few vamps.

Buffy turned back to the Doctor, her eyes demanding an explanation.

"The Daleks wanted your brain," said the Doctor, "because you're you."

"They... they wanted to take her out of history, right?" Jordan asked. "To make sure IPSA got wiped out before it started, and..."

"No, remember the gravestone we dug up in Somelydaya two years ago!" Laura said. "Bunfy Sompters died before the Slayer Institution was ever founded. It wasn't founded by her. It was just founded based on her legacy. Even if you took her out of time, that wouldn't have changed!"

Gravestone? They'd... found her gravestone?

1800 years in the future or not, that was seriously, seriously creepy.

The Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder — a gesture that somehow took away that horrible chill that had come across her from the previous little banter.

"The Dalek Supreme noticed that the Slayers had a power far greater than anything they'd encountered before," said the Doctor, "and decided to get that power working for him. Problem is, Daleks can't hope, or dream, or inspire. In fact, they're certain these traits are weaknesses. So they decided IPSA's power must derive from the Slayer brain. And who was the most brilliant, most strategic, most creative Slayer of all time?" He smiled at Buffy. "You."

Buffy tried to take this all in. Tried to take in how this all worked together, what this all could mean.

"So... let me get this straight," said Buffy. "The Daleks wanted my brain. And the Fountain — to defeat Adam and IPSA and whoever else they felt like disintegrating. But also my brain. So they went back in time, found me, and captured me. And then they just... left me alone for a while, doing nothing. Not harvesting my brain. Just twiddling their..." She glanced down at her thumbs. "...sink-plungers until you could show up and rescue me." She raised her eyebrows. "I think I've found a flaw in your logic, Doctor."

"They were probably planning to bring you back to the 39th century so the Dalek Supreme could cut you up himself," said the Doctor. "They didn't realize I was coming to save you. In fact, until I arrived on that Dalek ship, the Daleks probably had no idea that you and I had any sort of connection."

Buffy said nothing.

"The Daleks must have detected my TARDIS," said the Doctor, "when I rescued Willow. They tried to check in with their Dalek Supreme, figure out what to do about me. But their transmission was scrambled by that TARDIS-repelling spell you shoved in the vortex a short time in the future. After a while of their communications not working, they decided to simply slice open your brain right then and there. That's when I walked in."

"But they didn't exterminate you," Buffy pointed out. "Even when you goaded them."

"Of course not! They were stalling me," the Doctor said. "Trying to get the Fountain, so they'd at least have succeeded in _some_ part of their mission." He gave a shrug. "That particular group of Daleks was incredibly incompetent. Probably didn't even know the real plan. And with good reason. Dalek Supreme wouldn't have sent his best soldiers after you — what with your reputation being what it is. He probably assumed that particular temporal team would be hacked apart."

"Hacked apart, disintegrated," said Buffy, with a shrug. "Same diff."

"Then he'd learn from their mistakes," the Doctor said, "and come back for you later. With an army."

Buffy felt a chill run down her spine.

"Course," said the Doctor, "that particular Dalek temporal team _did_ return to the 39th century, just after they retrieved the Fountain. They told the Dalek Supreme what happened, informed him that you knew me. The Dalek Supreme must have done a bit of sifting around in our past using that Temporal Playback gizmo he showed me, later, and came to the conclusion that I would always rescue you. No matter what. Even if the Daleks exterminated this incarnation, my past incarnation would come in and rescue you, instead."

And if the Daleks exterminated the Doctor before he'd ever met Buffy, then that whole whatever-mistake-thing the Doctor had done during World War II wouldn't have happened, and the Daleks would wipe themselves out.

"The only thing that would stop me from showing up to save you," said the Doctor, "would be if doing so required crossing my own timeline."

"But you _have_ crossed your own timeline," Buffy protested. "Remember? Later-you came around while past-you was stuck in the Initiative."

" _Later_ -me," the Doctor agreed. "But later-me wouldn't be able to drop by if I wound up dead at the end of all this. And younger-me would check the TARDIS and see there was already a Doctor in this time and place, and assume that I was successfully saving you. Which means no doubling back."

Oh. Okay. That made sense.

"So, knowing this, the Dalek Supreme devised a new plan," the Doctor continued.

Buffy was starting to see where the Doctor was going with all this. "Make sure that you were already here, fighting off Adam, while the Daleks were dissecting my brain," said Buffy. "If Adam wanted your TARDIS, you'd send it away. So no super rescues using the TARDIS, like you did last time."

The Doctor nodded. "The calibration test we sabotaged," he said, "was not designed to calibrate the Fountain. Or the Genetic Disintegrator. That test was calibrating me. And it was calibrating you."

"What could make us split up," Buffy said.

"And how we worked together," the Doctor agreed. "What the two of us would do, facing off against the Daleks."

"And Julie?"

"I suspect," said the Doctor, "that they were worried she'd tell _you_ what was going on. Which would be the same reason they'd want the information out of my head, as well. Not because _I'd_ find out. But because _you_ would."

"But why did the Daleks transport me to 39th century Earth?" Buffy asked. "Why didn't they transport me directly onto—?"

That was when a loud bang erupted through the air, and the ship juddered and shook, the four of them struggling to keep their balance.

"You know what? Never mind," said Buffy. "Whatever the Daleks' plans are, they can wait until we're done escaping from them."

"Good idea," said the Doctor, flipping the sonic from hand to hand. "Luckily, I've just formed a plan."


	22. Chapter 22

It was a plan that mainly comprised of crawling through ventilation ducts that really shouldn't have been made big enough to crawl through. Buffy had thought that was only a cheap and easy solution for people that wrote movies.

"But they're _supposed_ to be exactly big enough for a human to crawl through," said Laura. "That's why they're built that way. A last ditch escape route in case of alien hijacking."

"And, lucky for us, these ones are magnetized against robotic sentience," said Jordan. "So Adam's army wouldn't be able to get through."

Right. 39th century. Okay, then.

"Where are we going, anyways?" Buffy asked the Doctor, trying to make her crossbow not clang against the metal ventilation duct.

"Outer hull," the Doctor told her.

Then he held up a hand, and they all stopped, trying to be as quiet as possible, as the sound of talking and footsteps reverberated beneath them.

The ship shook again, and the loud screech of Dalek voices demanding surrender blared across the loudspeaker system beneath them. Jordan and Laura both scowled, and mouthed the words, "Go to hell!"

The Doctor took the opportunity to continue crawling through the ventilation duct.

"I thought you said that the Daleks weren't going to blow this ship up!" Buffy whispered to the Doctor.

"They're not," the Doctor replied.

"These are just shielding shots," Jordan explained, from behind Buffy. "They're designed to weaken the force field around the ship, so that you can pass through it and get inside. We do it all the time when rescuing Code 5's."

Outer space Slayers. How totally crazy was that? Apparently, the typical Slayer had progressed a lot since the days when it was all about staking vampires with pointy wooden sticks.

Buffy kept crawling, still trying to stop her crossbow (stupid crossbow) from hitting the side of the ventilation shaft and making a loud clanging noise. She'd have left the thing behind, but... she felt kind of naked without a weapon or two on her.

"Bunfy—" Jordan whispered.

"Buffy," Buffy whispered back.

"—how'd you become the Slayer?" Jordan continued.

Okay, weird question.

"The normal way," said Buffy. "Some Watcher came over and told me I had a destiny and I was the Chosen one and whatever. I tried to run away from it, realized I couldn't, and became the Slayer."

No one said anything for a moment.

Then, from Laura, "What's a Watcher?"

Buffy glanced over her shoulder at them. "You guys don't know what a Watcher is?"

Both Laura and Jordan shook their heads.

"Like, Watchers Council kinds of Watchers?" Buffy clarified.

They both still looked at her, completely blankly.

"Never mind," said Buffy, looking back in front of her. "They're just some stuffy English guys."

"And they created the Slayer?" asked Jordan.

"You can ask the Doctor about that one," said Buffy. "He was there when the Slayer was created. I wasn't."

"The Doctor created the Slayer?" Laura asked.

"No, actually, the Doctor was kind of pissed off about it," said Buffy. "I mean, you know what the Slayer actually is, right?"

"A genetic and psychic mutation that occurs in a certain percentage of human females," said Jordan. "As represented by the psychic network configuration that calls herself Sineya."

Buffy blinked. "Okay, that wasn't exactly where I was going with that." She kept hoping the Doctor would jump in and help her out with all these explanations, but he seemed completely unwilling to do so. "It's... complicated. And kind of not my story to tell. I'll let the Doctor tell it, if he wants."

The Doctor stopped, then buzzed at a section of the ventilation duct with his sonic screwdriver. A hatch opened, and the Doctor dropped down.

Buffy and the others followed him.

"So," said Buffy, "where are we...?" She trailed off, as she heard an indignant cry and a metallic plonk, the sonic screwdriver hitting Buffy's shoe as it rolled across the floor. Buffy looked up, and found that the Doctor was currently being held, arms against his side, by... okay, basically, Adametta.

Except her part-human side was... stunning. Gorgeous. Like a supermodel or something.

Piercing green eyes that seemed to naturally twinkle in any light. Shoulder-length brown hair — a deep, rich brown color, like the color of milk chocolate. Long, elegant fingers — on the human hand, at least. The other one looked kind of blue and had spikes coming out of it.

"Debby?" Jordan squeaked.

"Hello, Jordan," said the creature that — apparently, at some point — had been 'Debby'. "Laura. Long time no see."

Buffy cringed, as she noticed the pain on the two Slayers' faces. Whoever Debby was, she'd clearly been close to these two, and it was never easy realizing that someone you once knew and had been friends with had suddenly turned into a monster.

(She remembered that experience all too well from Angel.)

"Ah, so _you're_ Deborah Raykins, then," said the Doctor, dangling with his feet in midair, struggling to loosen her grip. "I've heard a lot about you."

Deborah squeezed him a little tighter, and his face scrunched up in pain.

"Debby, what... what happened to you?" Laura asked.

"You don't like the new look?" asked Deborah. She grinned at them, but it was a malicious, cruel grin. "I got upgraded. Made better."

"Upgraded?" asked Jordan. "Deb, you sound like... a cyberman."

Deborah laughed. "Do I look like a cyberman, Jor? I've got personality, I've got creativity, and I've got a strength you couldn't imagine. Adam didn't kill me. He set me free."

"Rather an odd definition of freedom," the Doctor pointed out. "Taking orders. Being forced to do as you're told."

"Free from morality," said Deborah. "Free from consequences. Free from petty human emotions. Free to spread Adam's message throughout the stars." She squeezed the Doctor even tighter, until he gasped for breath. "And throughout time, too, looks like."

Buffy scanned the area for something that could be used as a bolt, and grabbed — a steel rod that looked like part of the space ship. Whatever. It did the trick. She threaded it into her crossbow, and pointed the weapon at Deborah.

"Let go of him," she said, "or I'll make you."

Jordan and Laura both pulled Buffy back, frantically, trying to grab the crossbow out of her hands.

"You can't do this!" said Jordan. "That's Debby! It sounds like her! It acts like her! She remembers us!"

"She's our friend," Laura pleaded. "She served on our ship for years. She's not a cyberman. She's still alive!"

"She's not alive!" Buffy shouted, trying to wrestle herself out of their grips, but, damn it, they were onto something with that genetic engineering thing. They were way stronger than she was.

"Still worshiping the famous Bunfy Sompters, then," said Deborah to Jordan and Laura, releasing her grip on the Doctor, just a hair. She stepped towards them, her eyes fixed on Buffy. "I always thought she'd be something really special, you know? Someone who could get out of any trap, who could never make a mistake, who knew every answer and could see fifty steps ahead of everyone else." She gave a dry laugh. "They say you should never meet your heroes."

"Deb, come on," said Jordan. "This isn't like you!"

Deborah appraised Buffy, slowly. "I watched her getting tortured, you know," she said, with a smile. "She screamed just like everyone else."

Buffy finally managed to push Jordan and Laura off of her. "That isn't your friend!" she told them, pointing at Deborah. "Your friend is dead. That's just some... _thing_ using her body."

"She remembers us!" said Jordan. "She's still Debby." She turned to Deborah. "Come on, tell her. Tell her you're really you."

"Of course I am," said Deborah. "I'm Deborah Raykins. I'm exactly who you knew. Only now, I'm so much more."

"It's just like a vampire!" Buffy shouted at Jordan and Laura. "She looks like your friend. She sounds like your friend. She has your friend's memories. But she _isn't_ your friend!"

For a second, no one said anything.

Then Laura said, "Huh?"

"You mean like vampires, like in that book?" Jordan asked. She snapped her fingers. "What's it called? The really famous one! You know, the most classic vampire book ever written? The one that everyone always associates with vampires? Written by that Stoker guy..."

"Dracula?" the Doctor guessed.

"Twilight!" Jordan exclaimed. "That's the one!" She paused. "Or, wait, was that written by Meyers?"

"Bram Stoker was the one that wrote Frankenstein," Laura whispered to Jordan.

The Doctor muttered something about Mary Shelley being a personal friend of his. As for Buffy — well, she had no idea what to say to this. (What the hell was Twilight, anyways?)

"So, wait, why's Debby like a vampire?" asked Jordan. She examined Deborah a little more carefully. "She doesn't _look_ sparkly. Not even in the simulated sunlight of the proto-fusion bulbs in this ship."

"Maybe she hates werewolves," Laura put in. "Or... was that just in the movie?"

Okay. Right. Looks like the people of the future hadn't heard of the Watchers Council, vampires, or... common sense.

"It's like possession by the Gelth," the Doctor amended. "The personality traits are vestigial. Your friend's soul is gone. What's in there, now, isn't Deborah Raykins."

Finally, the horror that Buffy had expected to wash across Jordan and Laura's faces did so.

"Do you really think that a simple crossbow will be enough to kill me?" Deborah asked Buffy. "Do you really think you can defeat a Slayer who has been made into something so much better, so much more perfect?"

Buffy aimed the crossbow right above Deborah, and fired so that it struck the bolt holding two pieces of the ventilation duct together. The ventilation duct creaked, then collapsed on top of Deborah's head, striking her and making her scream as it impacted with her mechanical circuitry.

Looks like Jordan and Laura were right about those ventilation ducts being designed to mess with mechanical sentience.

Laura and Jordan darted forwards, prying the Doctor out of Deborah's grip. Then the Doctor pushed Laura back towards Buffy, who threw the sonic at the Doctor's head. The Doctor caught it.

"Hope you've both got your little bubble thingamajigs near at hand," he told Laura and Jordan, wiggling the sonic in his hand. "Because we're going to need them."

Deborah Raykins gave a roar, pushing the ventilation ducts off of her and glaring at the people in the room. "Oh, I am going to have so much fun tearing all of you—"

That was when the Doctor pointed his sonic at a bunch of explosives near the hull of the ship. And the room they were in exploded.


	23. Chapter 23

Buffy gasped, and opened her eyes as she came to. She sat up, searching the area around her. Laura was fiddling with a set of controls that had morphed out of the side of the bubble the two of them were sitting in. A thin, red bubble, with translucent walls, which felt a little squishy beneath Buffy's fingers.

"You okay?" Laura asked her.

"Yeah," said Buffy. She breathed in and out, heavily. She felt like she couldn't catch her breath. "I almost died, but against all odds, I didn't. That's definitely a Doctor plan." She gave a laugh. "I guess this is the part where he thinks up another plan, then."

Laura just kept fiddling with the controls. "You wouldn't have died," she said. "The Doctor set up an iso-electric—"

"Yep," said Buffy. "Something techno-babbly. That sounds about right." She glanced around herself. "Where is the Doctor, anyways?"

"Other bubble," said Laura. "With Jordan."

Buffy peered out and noticed, not far away, was another bubble — this one blue — floating in the vacuum of space. It seemed to have two far more animated passengers inside.

Buffy poked at the side of the bubble. "This thing's weird," she said. "It's a space ship or something?"

"No, just a bubble," said Laura. "For short hops. Nothing over a light-year."

"Huh," said Buffy. She poked at the side of it, again. It was soft and squishy, like touching the side of an air mattress, but it seemed to be solid. It was just weird wandering around space in something that was so... insubstantial.

"They're... sort of cheaper than a space ship," Laura explained. "And they seal hull breaches and stuff. Plus, when you're done, you can just throw them out."

"Disposable space ships," said Buffy. "That can go a whole light-year. Because that's not weird at all."

Laura said nothing.

Buffy fidgeted. Laura kept acting all stiff and weird around her, and it was no wonder! Here Buffy was, supposedly this super-duper Slayer hero person, and so far she'd managed to sob her eyes out, completely fail to know what was going on, be tricked by the Daleks, and let her friend nearly get killed by Adam, again. She was enough of a wreck that she'd basically been begging Adam to hurt her for about a month, now. And she had no idea about any of this outer-spacey stuff. No wonder all the Slayers who met her were super disappointed! Deborah Raykins was right. You should never meet your heroes.

If the Daleks ever _did_ get her brain, they were going to feel seriously jipped.

"Look, I'm sorry I'm all with the low-tech," said Buffy, edging away from the side of the bubble. "It's just, you know, 21st century girl over here, and—"

Laura spun around. "You're my idol."

Buffy blinked.

"It's just... you're so amazing," said Laura, her eyes glowing, her voice reverent. "I studied you in school. And you're the coolest. And... and... and I'm getting to meet you! In person!"

Buffy stared at Laura, confused. "Wait, but... you saw me getting tortured, having a major cry-o-thon guilt-trip, having all my plans fall apart, and completely failing to save my friend."

"I know!" Laura said, excitedly. "And I've learned so much from you already!"

Buffy felt her head spinning. She just nodded, slowly. "Okay, then."

She wasn't really sure what else to say. After all, here was someone who really looked up to her and admired her. Someone that, apparently, thought so highly of her that even when she completely screwed everything up, or had mega guilt issues, or had just discovered her own dark side and was pretty freaked out about it, Laura still thought she was the coolest.

(Which was seriously weird.)

Buffy realized that Laura was waiting for her to speak, and scrambled for some reply.

"Just... be yourself, don't do drugs or drink cave-man creating beer, and..." Buffy sighed. "Okay, scratch that. Look, I'd tell you something super-inspiring, but the thing is, this whole outer-spacey battle thing is way beyond me. All I know how to do is kill vampires." She gave a small laugh. "And you guys don't even have vampires, anymore!"

"I've read all of your speeches," said Laura. "Or all the ones we have on file. And I did my thesis on you, in college, and... basically, I've made a complete study of your life. And... wow! You're so... _smart_! I mean, that thing you did defeating Olvikan was just... ingenious! I'd never have thought of anything like that!"

"Really?" asked Buffy. She felt herself smiling in spite of the fact that she really shouldn't be liking this as much as she was. After all, she didn't need an ego trip. "What else is impressive about me?"

"I guess just that... you care about people," said Laura. "Not... that I'm completely up on everything, since a lot of the details of your life were lost in the electromagnetic storm, but... you always care. Even when you're facing off against totally evil stuff, you're always... risking your life to protect people, and diving into danger just to save complete strangers, and things like that."

"Yeah," said Buffy, her smile growing. "I guess I... kind of am."

"And that's just so inspiring!" said Laura. "We tell your stories during those really hard battles. Just... to remind us what we're fighting for, why we're doing this. You get us through the rough patches. Like, this one girl, on our starship — Trista — she got kidnapped by Daleks and tortured for information for two days. When we got her back, she was barely alive. But the thing that got her through it all was reciting, over and over again, the story of how you defended your sister."

Buffy blinked. Sister? She was about to say that she didn't _have_ a sister, but... stopped herself. If the only thing getting these girls through torture was reciting legends about her sticking up for a sister she didn't have... well, Buffy didn't really have the heart to take that away from them.

"I'm glad it helped?" Buffy offered.

"And everyone still studies your battle tactics back at Korjensky," said Laura. "I mean, we've even used one or two of them against the Daleks. Those were our most successful battles to date."

Korjensky. Now there was a name that kept coming up.

"And this 'Korjensky'," said Buffy. "It's, like, a Watchers Council type thing, or a school, or...?"

"It's a star system," said Laura.

Buffy felt her jaw drop open. "Wait, what?"

"It's the star system owned by the Slayer Institution," Laura repeated, with a shrug. "It's where we all go. Our headquarters, our schooling, everything's there."

"You own a _star system_?" Buffy exclaimed.

"Well, yeah," said Laura. "Five inhabitable planets. Although... with money being tight and everything, we had to sell one of them off. And another one's being rented to a bunch of weapons manufacturers."

Okay...

"But we've still got a whole planet for the retired Slayers," Laura continued. "And one that has the secondary school and the University and the governmental places where all the Officials meet and stuff. And another one for the Slayer kids — you know, because when a Slayer has kids, the kids aren't usually Slayers themselves. They're just... Korjensky kids." She gave Buffy a small smile. "They usually wind up being pretty weird, actually."

Buffy tried to steady her breath.

"And as for our University, it's the second largest one in the Milky Way, with over one hundred different..." Laura trailed off. "Are... you okay?"

"What?" asked Buffy. She realized she'd curled up into a ball, her head in her hands, and was rocking back and forth. "I'm... fine. Totally fine. Just..."

Having her mind completely blown. Having her entire idea of what it meant to be the Slayer get overwritten. Having to come to terms with the fact that, in the future, she was famous, Slayers fought Daleks in outer space, the Slayer Institution owned its own star system, and Slayers lived long enough to retire and have families and kids.

Having to come to terms with the fact that people would live their lives wanting to be like _her_.

(And she didn't even understand who she really was.)

Laura's excitement faded, as she edged back away from Buffy, clearly worried she'd said something wrong.

"I... didn't mean to... freak you out or anything," she offered. "I just thought... you might be interested."

Laura waited for Buffy to say something back, and when Buffy didn't, Laura hesitated. Then she reached back behind her, and brought out a wooden crossbow.

"I... um... got your crossbow for you," she added, handing it to Buffy.

Buffy took it, clinging to it like a security blanket. Something normal. Something solid. Something from the real world.

"Thanks," Buffy said. She gave a small laugh that (she hoped) wasn't hysterical and hyper-ventilatey. She could feel her hands shaking. "Not that I'll need it, here in the future. With no vampires and stuff."

She tried very hard not to think about Angel and what that meant for him. What had happened to him by now? What had happened to all of them?

Laura said nothing, just looked at Buffy with concern.

"How... how did the vampires die out?" asked Buffy. "I mean, did any of them survive? Even just one?"

Laura shrugged. "I dunno," she confessed. "It's kind of like the dinosaurs, I guess. There were vampires. And then there weren't. People have theories, but… no one really knows for sure how it happened." She reflected. "I think there were still a few left by the 31st century. But, you know, that was when solar flares basically roasted the entire planet, so... that got rid of the last of them." She gave a half-smile. "I've never seen one."

Buffy nodded. She took a few more deep breaths, and tried to calm herself down. She needed... stability. Normality. She needed her friends, or her mom, or... the Doctor, that's who she needed! The completely insane Doctor who just kept reassuring her that all this was absolutely normal and just like her own time, who always seemed to find a way to fit in, even when he was dressed several centuries out of fashion.

"When are we going to get to... wherever it is we're going?" Buffy asked.

"We should be there pretty soon," said Laura. "We're kind of drifting slowly because that way the Daleks' motion sensors don't pick up the bubbles as easily." She hesitated. "Why? You're not... space-sick or something?"

"No," said Buffy. "I just... really, really need to talk to the Doctor. Like... right now."

Laura said nothing for a few moments. "We could... call the other bubble."

Buffy perked up. "Really?"

"Except... it's kind of safer to maintain radio silence," said Laura. "But... I mean, if you really, really have to speak to him..."

Buffy sighed, and waved the idea away. "No, it's not that important. Never mind."

Laura's forehead creased in concentration. "Look, I know this is going to sound weird," she said, "because he's obviously a really important part of your life, and I wrote my thesis on you and should know this, but... the Doctor... who is he?"

Buffy glanced over at the other bubble, where she could make out the Doctor's silhouette, his arms waving as he tried to make some emphatic point of his.

"He's just... my friend," she confessed. "My really, really good friend." She hugged her knees to her chest, and rocked a little, back and forth. "I met him about two years ago. He showed me another way of looking at the world. A way of looking at things that doesn't involve death and darkness. His planet's gone, his people are gone, and he fights for what's good and right. Still defends humanity and the Earth throughout the ages. And in return, humanity..." She felt her lower lip trembling, and tried to stop it.

"You... don't have to tell me," Laura offered. "If it's too hard."

Buffy swallowed. She could still see the Doctor's contour in the other bubble. "It was a long time ago for him," she whispered. "But for me, it all happened just a few weeks ago. And... I had no idea."

Locked up. Tortured. Nearly killed. By humans.

"Two months," Buffy whispered. "Human beings tortured him. For two months. And I never knew."

Laura's mouth formed an 'Oh', as she seemed to realize why, exactly, Buffy had broken down, earlier. Why Buffy would allow herself to be tortured.

"And... it's all tied in to this," said Buffy. "What's going on, now. With Adam and the Daleks. The Doctor was tortured in the Initiative so the Daleks could create a huge big trap to harvest my brain. I mean... it really was my fault, wasn't it? If I hadn't called him, that first time that the Daleks invaded Sunnydale... none of this would have happened."

"It's not your fault," Laura said. "This is what the Daleks do. They force good people to do horrible things to one another. And to the rest of the universe."

"The Daleks may have put him down there," said Buffy. "Adam may have kept him trapped. But all the really bad parts — the torture, the loneliness, the things that were done to him — we did that. The human race." She hugged her knees to her chest a little tighter. "My own people."

Laura opened her mouth to say something, then closed it, again, not really sure what to say.

"I was angry," Buffy muttered. "So angry. When I found out. For a while... I wanted... I really, really wanted..."

Buffy bit her lip, and couldn't go on. Couldn't confess all the inner thoughts and inner turmoil that had been coursing through her since that day she'd confronted Riley about the Doctor's being in the Initiative.

She had known. Back then, when she'd been in her dorm room, trying to extract the truth out of Riley, and had nearly punched his face in, she'd had... that moment of icy clarity. That certainty that if she started, if she even just slapped him... she wouldn't be able to stop. Buffy would kill him. And then... she'd march right down into the Initiative, and kill every single person therein.

And in that moment, she'd known something else, too.

She'd _wanted_ to.

Buffy huddled in on herself. How... could she even have felt like that? How could she have felt that kind of hatred and anger and darkness towards... human beings? There was something inside of her, something evil, something heartless and deadly and cruel. She didn't know if that was her, or the Slayer, but... it scared her more than anything.

Buffy rested her chin on her knees, staring at the Doctor's outline in the other bubble. "The Doctor has a dark side, too, but he forgives and moves on," she said. "And I thought... maybe if I just... did that. It'd make things better. Get rid of the darkness." She took a shaky breath. "So I tried. Really hard. Riley — I forgave him. And the Initiative — as best I can. And... some... other people. But I..." She looked away from Laura. "I can't forgive _myself_."

"You... I mean, I don't know," said Laura, "but... it doesn't sound like you let it happen. You said you didn't know."

"I should have," said Buffy. "Should have... figured it out. Stopped it." She hugged her knees. "Shouldn't have let myself get so angry."

Laura looked down at her hands, in her lap. "Debby died," she said, softly, "and I didn't know. None of us knew." Her shoulders slumped. "And Earth... I mean, I was born on Earth. New Vankerfeld. And the Doctor said... it got destroyed." She swallowed. "I don't even know if my parents are still alive."

Buffy said nothing.

"The Doctor was really mad at us," Laura admitted. "He said... Adam was destroying the Earth... and it was our faults. And he was right — we were the ones digging up Somelydaya. We were the ones who released Adam. But... we had no idea." Laura stared down at the floor of the bubble. "I feel really upset about that."

"Okay, if you were the ones who released Adam, then I'm mad at you, too," said Buffy. "And the Doctor's right. You should have done something to help. But..." She sighed. "I dunno. I can't lecture you for doing nothing when I did nothing, too. Maybe... it's time we both did our somethings."

"What kind of somethings?" asked Laura.

"Well, destroying Adam, for one," said Buffy. "Like, really destroying him. I'm talking chuck him into the funeral pyre so there's no way some stupid humans can bring him back in the future, and..." Her head shot up, and she squinted. "Hang on. Is that bubble farther than it was before?"

It was.

A lot farther. In fact, it seemed to be accelerating away from them.

Laura stared off into the distance, at the other bubble, confusion spreading across her face. She picked up a little translucent blob from the bubble, and began speaking into it.

"Redhorse 9 to BlueWaltz 7, you're going the wrong way," Laura said.

There was a crackle of static, and then Jordan's voice boomed through the air.

"Okay, that's not me!" said Jordan. " _I'm_ trying to get the controls _away_ from him." Another burst of static, followed by what sounded like a jumbled thudding and some whining from Jordan. Then, "Ask Bunfy Sompters—"

"It's Buffy Summers," said Buffy. "Really."

"—if she knows some way to make her friend stop being totally insane," said Jordan. "Because this is suicidal and ridiculous!"

"I know!" the Doctor chirruped, in the background. "It's a wonderful plan!"

Buffy snatched the speaker-blob from Laura. "Doctor, you'd better not be doing what I think you're doing."

"Absolutely not!" said the Doctor. "Incidentally... Laura, if you'd be so kind as to knock Elizabeth unconscious until she arrives somewhere safe and sound, that would be greatly appreciated."

Then the blue bubble burst with speed, and zipped off into space.

Buffy sighed. Yeah, okay, he was doing exactly what she thought.

"I'm guessing they just zoomed right towards the Dalek fleet," said Buffy to Laura.

Laura nodded, her mouth still open as she gaped at the departing bubble.

Buffy handed her back the speaker blob, and reached out for the controls.

"No, wait!" said Laura, trying to get in between Buffy and the controls. "You don't know how to fly it."

"I know how to fire a rocket launcher in a shopping mall!" said Buffy. "How much harder can it be?" She grabbed at a suspicious-looking lever. "Besides. All I really want to do is make it go really fast in the opposite direction."

"But... but... but the Daleks _want_ you onboard their ship!" Laura said. "If you go there, you'll be signing your own death warrant."

Buffy gave Laura a long, steady glare. "I'm sick and tired of waiting around and doing nothing while my friends are in danger," she said. "I said we should do something. So this is my something." She pulled the lever.

And the bubble accelerated towards the Dalek fleet.

* * *

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

Amy composed herself. Yes, there was a lot of blood — most of it goopy and gooey and definitely not human — but far more monstrous was this... _creature_ that was being created in Lab 314. This... crime against nature...

Rory stepped up behind her, peering over her shoulder. Amy could hear his breath shaking a little.

"This... wasn't exactly what I was expecting," Rory confessed.

"Is this what the Doctor's facing in the 39th century?" Amy asked, slipping into the lab and taking a few tentative steps towards the creature. "Is this what makes breaking into the Initiative 'safe' by comparison? This... whatever it is?"

Rory opened his mouth to reassure her, then closed it.

Summoning up as much courage as she could, Amy circled around the cadaver, trying to work out what to do. Things that looked like monsters didn't always wind up being monsters — she knew that. But...

Looks aside, there was no way that anything designed by the 'we-tortured-the-Doctor' Initiative could possibly be _good_.

"I guess... we just get information on this thing and go," said Rory. "Like the Doctor said."

Amy stopped in her tracks, her eyes just fixed on the creature in front of her. She knew Rory was right, that if the Doctor was facing this thing in the future, they couldn't destroy it here. What with the laws of time and everything. But... Amy was fed up with the laws of time.

The laws that hadn't let her save the Doctor, on that beach.

The laws that had forced Rory to leave behind some hardened future version of herself on that plague planet.

The laws that wouldn't let her burn this institution to the ground before it ever got its hands on the Doctor's younger self.

The laws that forced her to stand aside and do nothing, over and over again.

Amy met Rory's eyes with her own, determination flooding through her. "No."

Rory gave her a quizzical look.

Amy grabbed a number of chemicals marked "inflammable" from the counter beside her, and threw them across the body on the lab table. "We're not going to gather information on the project," she said, taking a lighter out of her pocket. "We're going to destroy it."

Then she lit the stitched-together body on fire.

... ... ...

"What's the situation?" Professor Walsh asked, as she entered the surveillance room.

On all the monitors, she could see the image of a metal pepper-pot shaped object right beside the disguised elevator shaft, its sink-plunger arm stuck to the mirror's surface. On a computer terminal nearby, watched by Private Stavros and Julie Parsoner, numbers and programming whipped by, all explaining the security measures of the Initiative.

"So far, the HST has broken through 90% of the security systems we've installed," said Private Stavros. "And it's working on 100."

"Professor Walsh," said Private Dixon, coming over to her. "Two teams are down because of..."

"I heard," said Walsh, glancing over at him. "Have a cleanup operation done and inform the families. This is a top secret operation and it stays that way. As far as the public is concerned, no one's died today."

Dixon saluted her.

"It's nearly done breaking the last security lock," Stavros warned them.

"Ha! Good luck," said Julie Parsoner. "It'll take more than some HST to get past..."

"It's in!" shouted Stavros, as every other soldier in the room jumped to their feet, guns and rifles ready.

"I want it restrained and disabled, but not killed!" Walsh shouted after them, as they all hurried off to confront the HST that was floating down the elevator shaft. "This creature could be vital to our work, here!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" the soldiers shouted back, as they left.

Angleman stepped forwards. "Professor, do you think...?"

Walsh glanced over her shoulder at Dr. Angleman. "You've seen it for yourself. An indestructible bio-mechanoid. Very interesting, don't you think?"

"Very," Angleman agreed.

Walsh fixed her eyes back on the monitor, analyzing the metallic pepper-pot shaped creature. "I've checked over the notes. We'll have more data when we get our hands on it, but I'm hoping it'll be compatible."

Angleman faltered. "The two... prisoners..."

Walsh waved her hand in the air. "Hardly important. They're not Torchwood — just a ragtag group of troublemakers. I'll deal with them."

"Yes, but... Professor... the HST... seemed to imply that it was looking for them," said Angleman. "Specifically."

Walsh digested that. "Is that so?"

Angleman was about to speak again, when a metallic, grating voice echoed out from the surveillance monitors.

"SONIC TECHNOLOGY DETECTED!" shouted the creature, as it stopped its descent down the elevator shaft. It hovered for a moment, in the air, then zoomed back upwards, very fast. "SEEK! LOCATE! EXTERMINATE!"

"What the...?" asked Julie, stepping closer to analyze the screens. The creature flew through the mirror-doors, and zoomed out of camera range. Julie gave a small laugh. "Go figure."

Walsh spun around to face Angleman. "Find out where it's headed," she said. "I want that creature subdued and brought back here as soon as..."

The sudden beeping of a fire alarm blazed through the Initiative. Walsh stepped towards the monitors, flipping through displays, then halted. Her eyes lit up in horror.

She glanced over at Angleman, and mouthed the numbers "314".

Then she grabbed a fire extinguisher, and raced towards the lab, hoping beyond hope that the sprinkler system had at least done something to preserve her creation.


	24. Chapter 24

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

"What are you doing here?" the Doctor demanded of Buffy, when she'd arrived on the Dalek ship.

"I'm making sure you don't get exterminated," said Buffy. She crossed her arms. "What are _you_ doing here? No, wait, I can guess."

"Julie," the Doctor confirmed.

Laura looked around at the lifeless black Dalek control center they were currently standing in. "Why haven't the Daleks noticed we're here?"

"Trust me, they've noticed," said Jordan. "He's just disabled the alarms and sealed us inside this room."

The Doctor leaned down to sonic the Dalek computer banks, their displays flickering into life and then flickering out, a series of bleeps and other sounds coming from the equipment. "Should take them a while to override the door controls."

"Eleven minutes, max," Jordan told Laura.

"That's all it takes!" said the Doctor. He ducked down to buzz at the computers in a slightly different spot.

"Reinforcements?" Laura asked Jordan.

"On the way," said Jordan. "Already called for a rescue." She glanced around, and gave a dry laugh. "What do you think, Laura. Ship like this? I'd estimate five thousand Daleks at least."

"More like ten thousand," Laura guessed. "Judging by the size and ship-type."

"Ten thousand to four," said Jordan. "Not sounding good."

Buffy cringed, her eyes still fixed on the Doctor. "So... even if your Slayers arrive, it's going to be five to ten thousand Daleks against..." She paused, then whirled around to face Jordan and Laura. "How many Slayers are there, now? Like, 500?"

Jordan scoffed. "We may be taking heavy casualties, but we're not taking _that_ many casualties. We're still somewhere around 4 million."

Buffy stared.

She didn't know what had taken her breath away more. The word million, or the implication that they used to have even more Slayers than that. No, wait, on second thought, Buffy did know. It was the word 'million'.

"Million?" she breathed.

(Buffy guessed that explained where all the vampires had gone.)

"Yeah," said Jordan. "Not all here, you know. There are a bunch still in the Korjensky System. And some are retired. But basically, yeah, we've got about 2 million out here."

"No, no, wait," Buffy said. "Four million? There are four million Slayers existing all at once?"

"Well... yeah," said Laura. "Why? How many do you have?"

"One!" said Buffy. She paused. "Okay, two-ish."

Laura and Jordan looked at each other, confused.

"Why are there millions of you?" Buffy asked them.

"I don't know!" said Jordan. "Why's there only one of you?"

"I... don't know," Buffy said. She looked over at the Doctor. "Doctor, why's there only one of me and millions of them?"

"Very complicated," said the Doctor, not looking away from his work on the computer terminal. "The world changes. Time and space. Wibbly-wobbliness. Vineyards and scythes."

Buffy turned back to Jordan and Laura. "Yeah, he doesn't know, either."

"But it's not going to be five to ten thousand Daleks against two million Slayers," Jordan told Buffy. "I only called for a rescue team to come in from VQ-17. A lot of the other Vanquishers are posted across Lasky's Nebula. They'd never be able to reach us in time."

"And this isn't even the biggest Dalek ship," Laura agreed. "By a lot."

"We're expecting about a thousand," said Jordan. "But trust us. If we can hold off the Daleks until reinforcements — ten thousand Daleks against one thousand Slayers? Piece of cake."

Buffy didn't answer. Her eyes fell back on the Doctor. Trust them, Jordan said. _Trust_ them? Why? Sure, they were Slayers, but... what did that mean? Buffy could still remember when she'd first met the Doctor, the way that the Watchers at the Council had spoken about him, like he was a tool they could use and then throw away.

Just like the Initiative had tried to do.

Just like IPSA had done, only a short time ago, when Buffy had been in trouble. Exchanging his life for hers. How could she trust them, when they thought so little of the Doctor's life? How could she believe in them, when she couldn't believe in humanity, the military, or herself?

"Got it!" cried the Doctor, as the machine made a clicking noise.

He buzzed at something else, and the machine purred, a shimmering column of bright white light snapping on in the center of the room. The Doctor popped to his feet, and walked around the column of light.

"Aha!" The Doctor studied it, curiously. "Now, what have we, here?"

Buffy sat down on a nearby crate, waiting until the Doctor was done going all sciencey. She knew he'd explain it all to her, eventually, given time. Or not.

(Probably not.)

"Photon acceleration field?" Jordan guessed, walking over to the Doctor.

The Doctor glanced up at her. "No. Good guess, but no." He dipped his hand into the light, and gave a small laugh, wiggling his fingers. "Tickles a bit."

"What is it?" Jordan asked him.

"Temporal teleporter!" the Doctor told her. "Very clever bit of engineering. Creates a structured time corridor that allows for unshielded persons to travel the vortex."

That was right around the time that the 'crate' Buffy had been sitting on hummed into life.

Buffy jumped to her feet, staring at it. Nope, not a crate. It looked more like a chunky black computer thing. Black and white monitor, little lines of static drifting across the surface. It was a little more primitive than Buffy had expected to find in the future.

Hang on...

"Doctor," said Buffy. "Do all 39th century computers know you, or just this one?"

The Doctor, Laura, and Jordan all spun around to face Buffy, who was backing a little ways away from the computer thingy. They all spotted the message as well, upon that primitive black-and-white screen. The single word:

"Doctor?"

Jordan, Laura, and the Doctor all raced over to Buffy and the monitor. Jordan and Laura stopping right behind Buffy's back, as the Doctor stepped forwards, crouching down, elbows on his knees, sonic dangling from the fingers of his right hand, analyzing the computer.

As they watched, the display flickered and blinked, then the word vanished, and was replaced with, "Well, don't all talk at once."

"Okay, that doesn't sound like a Dalek," said Jordan.

"No, it doesn't," the Doctor said. He examined the computer, carefully, then ventured a, "Hello, there! I'm the Doctor."

The words melted from the display, replaced by, "I guess that means the Daleks really did send you my phone."

Buffy felt her breath catch in her throat, as she processed what all this meant. As she took in the implications. "Oh, no," she said. "That's..."

"Julie," the Doctor agreed. He held the monitor in his hands, carefully stroking along its outer surface as if soothing a hurt child. "Oh, Julie, Julie, Julie. What happened to you?"

"What do you think happened to me?" the computer that was Julie replied, in typed letters. "I told you there was someone else behind the scenes. They found out you'd gotten me a pardon and saved my life, so they scooped me out of UNIT and brought me here. Used me as a lab rat in their little calibration test." The display paused. Then, in a new paragraph, it printed the words, "The irony is completely hysterical, by the way."

"How's she a computer?" Jordan asked. "You said she was human."

The Doctor sighed. "Draconian Katra." He hit his head with the palm of his hand. "Riley even told me and I didn't put the pieces together!"

Buffy remembered that name. The name of the brain-switching device that had swapped her and Faith's bodies, earlier that year. The device that had made her life a living hell.

"I thought Daleks didn't have hands," Buffy pointed out. "And that device was pretty hand-oriented."

"Daleks don't," said the Doctor. "Draconians do. The device comes from Draconia in the 39th century."

"But it doesn't switch human brains with computers!" Jordan insisted. "I know how those things work. They were a huge fad around Korjensky for a year or two. It's two biological entities swapping a psychic matrix."

"That's why the Daleks were testing out their own modified brain-swapper prototype on me," said Julie in chunky white letters. "I think they liked the results. I'm pretty sure they were planning to do a mega-rewrite of my personality to see if they could make me completely without conscience, but guess what? I'm already an inhuman bastard. Go me."

"I never believed that," said the Doctor, adjusting the settings on his sonic screwdriver. He considered. "Well, perhaps once or twice, but almost never." He buzzed the sonic at the computer, whose screen flickered.

"Yikes that tickles," said Julie. "What was that?"

The Doctor readjusted the sonic. "Trying to find some way to download you. Get you back into your original body."

The screen went black. Then, "Body's gone. Exterminated."

The Doctor paused in his fiddling. "Ah."

"She said... test run, right?" Buffy asked. "What... does that mean?"

"Remember that Vampire Slayer friend of yours?" Julie asked. "Well, the Daleks are going to bring her here. And when she gets here..."

"Uh, yeah," said Buffy. "Did that. Hi."

The white words cut off, mid sentence, for a short while. Then, on the next line: "That's not what they were planning."

"Why doesn't she know Bunfy's here?" Laura whispered.

The Doctor buzzed at the device once again with his sonic. The screen flickered in the same way it had the last time. The Doctor checked the reading on the sonic. "Because, apparently, Julie can't see or hear us."

"Of course I can't see or hear you," said Julie's white typed letters. "If I could, the Daleks probably wouldn't have blabbed all their plans while I was nearby."

"How's she communicating, then?" asked Jordan.

"I told you, Doctor, I'm not an idiot," said Julie. "This device is built to pick up vibrations. I just tuned it into sound waves, worked out what the sound waves for the word 'exterminate' felt like, and did the guesswork from there."

"I'm not sure she can tell which of us is talking," the Doctor told the others. "But she can figure out what we're saying."

But Buffy was starting to get a knotted-up feeling in the pit of her stomach. Because... the Doctor said the Daleks wanted her. Julie confirmed it. But Julie had sort of implied that she'd been a test run for... for something they were going to do to...

"Julie," said Buffy, "this is Buffy speaking. What... are the Daleks planning to do to me?"

Julie paused for a moment. Then, "You're looking at it."

"They're going to put her in a box?" asked Laura.

"I think," said the Doctor, "they want to transfer Elizabeth's mind into their central military computer."

"They needed to make sure the Doctor was here, fighting for his life, before they started," Julie confirmed. "Because they knew the Doctor would always swoop in and save Buffy, no matter what. If they exterminated him, a younger-him would show up, instead. The only way to make sure the Doctor didn't save Buffy was to make the Doctor already here, so he'd have to cross his own timeline to save her. They made Adam want the TARDIS, to ensure the Doctor sent it away. Then they gave Adam every scrap of information he needed..."

"To even out the sides," said Jordan. "We know."

"Even out the sides?" typed Julie. "Ha! As if! They wanted the Doctor completely outmatched. They wanted IPSA suspicious of the Doctor, they wanted Adam intent on killing the Doctor, and they wanted the Doctor, himself, surrounded by enemies on all sides, fighting for his life. And when the Doctor was fully preoccupied with that, the Daleks would transport Buffy to the 39th century and swap her brain with their central computer."

"At which point they'd go on to destroy IPSA, the Earth, and the Galactic Federation," said the Doctor, "then use Elizabeth's brain to exterminate the rest of the universe."

"And make sure _you_ were exterminated once and for all, Doctor," Julie added. "They were really excited about that part."

"Could the Daleks really do all of that?" asked Laura.

"Oh, yes," said the Doctor. "Hook her up to the Daleks' databases, give her access to every scrap of information they have, and, well, she'd be essentially unstoppable." He glanced over at Buffy. "After all, as she always tells me, her plans actually work."

"But... but... even if I become a computer, it'd still be my brain!" said Buffy. "And I'd never go off and kill everyone!"

"Once your brain became the computer, the Daleks would be able to reprogram bits of you," the Doctor explained. "Make sure you had no conscience. No soul. Just hatred, anger, and darkness."

"And keep in mind that the Daleks have then got a spare Slayer body hanging around," Julie added. "One they can send back in time and program to do anything they want."

"Which would allow them to gain Elizabeth's mind without destroying themselves in a universe-collapsing paradox," the Doctor concluded. "They really do have this very nicely planned out."

Buffy shuddered.

Jordan glanced over at Buffy. "Don't worry. Every single Slayer would give their lives for you a thousand times over. We're not going to let anything happen to you."

Buffy knew that. And she also knew that, if the Slayers were faced with a choice between her and the Doctor, they'd throw him into the fire and never look twice after they were done. Which... really, really bothered her.

The Doctor, meanwhile, jumped to his feet. "Wait, wait, wait a moment! There's something I'm overlooking!" he cried. "The Daleks! They didn't send Elizabeth to 39th century America! That wasn't the plan!" He sprinted over to the teleport controls, and began frantically pressing buttons.

"As far as I know, they didn't," Julie responded.

A whirr and steady boom rumbled through the air around them, as the Doctor fiddled further with the teleporter controls. "Two days after you defeated Adam," the Doctor called to Buffy. "That'd be... ah, May 25th, by any chance?"

Buffy started. "Yeah. How did you—?"

"First day the TARDIS-repelling time distortion field went down," the Doctor told her. "Your friends must have taken it down, in the hopes I'd bring you back. Which means... I can do... this!" He flicked a final switch, and there was a loud schwoomping sound, then silence. The Doctor beamed, as he turned back to them. "As it turns out, I lied. Well, not intentionally. The Daleks didn't bring Elizabeth to the 39th century. I did!" He gestured back at the computer banks. "Just now! Sent the summons back in time!"

But Buffy and the others were all staring at Julie's monitor, which had flicked into complete blackness — not even the lines of static crossing the screen, anymore — the moment the teleporter had activated.

"Doctor, I think there's something wrong with Julie," said Buffy.

The Doctor rushed over, and buzzed at the computer with his sonic. He adjusted the settings, then buzzed it again. "Teleporter must have scrambled her circuits," he muttered.

The display turned suddenly white. Then black. Then the static started up, again, and in large, capital letters in the center of the screen was the following message:

TEMPORAL TELEPORTER ACTIVATED.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE TRANSPORTED.

INITIATING SELF-DESTRUCT PROTOCOLS.

"What?!" Jordan cried.

At the bottom of the computer screen, a string of white-lettered lowercase curses appeared. Clearly, Julie.

Apparently, she hadn't been the one to trigger the self-destruct.

"No, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor cried. He frantically buzzed at the device with his sonic screwdriver. Then thudded the side of the computer. "Daleks must have put it in," he said. "Temporal discharge activates an automatic self-destruct response."

Then another flicker. "Yep," came Julie's typing. "Disposable lab rat? The irony's absolutely hysterical."

A countdown appeared on the monitor, with ten seconds left.

Beneath the countdown, Julie's white letters began appearing across the screen.

"Doctor, gotta tell you something. The Daleks are desperate. No, they're panicked. IPSA was winning before the Daleks started sending temporal teams back to 2000, and now that they know _you_ have a strong connection with Buffy and the Slayers, they're seriously freaked."

"Wait, IPSA's _winning_?" Jordan exclaimed.

"I don't know any of the details, Doctor," Julie continued. "But the Daleks are planning something else. Something worse. After Buffy's computer-swapped body is sent back in time, they're going to..."

Then the display went completely blank, save for the message, "Memory and Data Erasure Complete."


	25. Chapter 25

"No," the Doctor breathed. Then he hit the side of the computer with a bang that made everyone nearby jump. "No!" he shouted. "No, no, no!" He slumped in place, his voice radiating with pain, bitterness, and anger. "Every time! Every single time, the Daleks take everything away from me."

Buffy was about to speak, but the Doctor jumped to his feet, his face stony and angry, his eyes boring holes into the ceiling. He buzzed the sonic at the teleporter controls, and they hissed and then exploded into a shower of sparks.

"DOCTOR," a cruel, grating metallic voice echoed through the chamber.

Jordan and Laura automatically shifted into a fighting stance the moment they heard the voice — with the exact same instinctive reaction that Buffy always got when she sensed a vampire.

"Oh, you noticed that, did you?" the Doctor replied. His voice now had that angry sense of mimicked lightness that just made his every word that much more biting. "Well, notice this: I've destroyed you time and time again. Whenever you face off against me, you lose. So if I were you, I'd run. Very, very far away. Do you understand?"

There was a pause. Then:

"THE DALEKS WILL GAIN THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE."

"Come on!" Buffy complained, throwing her hands up in the air. "You're going to kill me! You could at least work out what my name is!"

"THE DOCTOR'S TARDIS AND COMPANIONS HAVE BEEN LOCATED," the Dalek voice continued. "THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE WILL BE GAINED. THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME."

"Go to hell!" shouted Jordan. "IPSA's been whooping your ass good for the last hundred and fifty years, and we can do it again!"

Laura, in the meantime, took a step back, her eyes fixed on the side of the ship. "Uh... Jordan?"

Buffy turned to look where Laura was pointing — at the hole they'd punched in the hull of the ship, then had sealed up with the bubble-stuff. Through the now-purple translucent substance, she could see a group of Daleks floating nearby, just outside the hull, eyestalks all trained on them.

Laura and Jordan both whipped out guns, but Buffy could tell from the looks on their faces that they knew this was the end for them.

The Doctor glanced towards the breach in the hull.

"Oh, give it a rest. You know that's not going to work," he said, walking towards it. "Take off the sealant, and you'd suffocate everyone inside this room. Including your 'Primary Objective.' And you're not going to risk that."

Sure enough, the Daleks didn't break through into the room.

"Now," said the Doctor, his voice cold and icy, "you've killed people that helped me, you've wreaked havoc with history, and you've threatened those I've sworn to protect. Adam may not know better, but you do." His eyes went dark. "You've made me angry, Daleks. Very, very angry. And when I'm angry, there's nothing you can do to stop me."

There was a whir, and then a click, followed by a loud hissing sound coming from the right and left doors. The Doctor, Buffy, and the two Slayers looked around.

"What was that?" Buffy asked.

"The Daleks overriding the door controls," the Doctor told her.

"Which means they're about to exterminate us," Jordan explained to Buffy, backing towards her and the others. She glanced over at Laura, who'd done the same, their guns pointed at the two doors that were beginning to slide open. "I'll take the left, you take the right. Remember: protect Bunfy at all costs."

"No, seriously, it's Buffy," Buffy corrected. "And you don't need to protect _me_. _I'm_ the only one the Daleks won't..." She stopped mid-sentence, as she remembered. The last time the Daleks had invaded Sunnydale.

_"What I want to know," the Doctor had asked Riley, "is why the Daleks haven't killed you, yet?"_

The doors hissed open, revealing more Daleks than Buffy had ever seen before in her life. They poured into the room, their gun barrels twitching in anticipation.

"EXTERMINATE!" they were chanting. "EXTERMINATE!"

Buffy looked down at her hands. And remembered. Grabbing Riley's hand, as they fled from the Daleks that first time. Their fingers interwoven, as they were led away from the graveyard at gunpoint. His hand on her shoulder, inside the Dalek spaceship.

_"Daleks don't take hostages," the Doctor had told them. "Not under normal circumstances."_

Hands. Physical contact.

Buffy threw her arms around the Doctor's waist, then called back, "Jordan, Laura, hug me!"

Jordan and Laura looked over their shoulder at her.

"Just do it!" Buffy shouted at them.

They hesitated, then spun around and did as they were told, their guns still pointed in the direction of the Daleks.

The Daleks circled around the four of them, their eyestalks glaring, their guns twitching, but didn't fire.

"Why aren't they killing us?" Laura whispered.

"Because I'm touching you," said Buffy.

"Any beam the Daleks shot at us would go through Elizabeth," the Doctor said, a small grin of pride spreading across his face. "And their orders are to take her alive."

"YOU WILL SURRENDER!" one of the Daleks shouted at them. "OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Buffy laughed. "No, if we surrender, we'll be exterminated," she said. "If we just keep hugging each other, you can't touch us."

"SURRENDER!" the Dalek shrieked. "SURRENDER!"

"I've always said that group hugs are underrated," Buffy remarked. "Don't you think so, Doctor?"

"Absolutely!" the Doctor agreed. "Not that the Daleks would know. No arms."

The Daleks said and did nothing, remaining completely still and silent for a moment.

"What's this? The silent treatment?" Buffy asked.

"They're getting new orders," said Laura.

Oh. Okay, that was bad.

"And I'm guessing hugs aren't going to protect us forever, then?" Buffy guessed.

"Probably not," the Doctor agreed. "But, then again, we don't need forever. Just long enough."

One of the Daleks slid forwards. "WE HAVE BEEN AUTHORIZED TO PROPOSE A DEAL TO THE SLAYER DESIGNATED BUFFY."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. They really expected her to fall for that one, again? "What kind of deal?"

"YOU WILL SURRENDER TO THE DALEKS," the Dalek said, "OR YOUR TWO SLAYER COMPANIONS WILL BE EXTERMINATED."

"That's not a deal," Buffy pointed out. "That's a threat."

"SURRENDER!" shrieked the Dalek. "SURRENDER! OR THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"And what about the Doctor?" asked Buffy. "Oh, wait, don't tell me. He's going to be exterminated, anyways, whether I surrender or not."

"THAT IS CORRECT," the Dalek informed her.

"At least they're being honest about it," said the Doctor.

"You're forgetting — I fell for this whole deal-thing last time," Buffy told the Daleks. "You don't make deals with inferior life forms. The moment I give myself up, everyone here's going to die."

The Daleks said nothing for a moment. Then, "YOU WILL SURRENDER, OR YOUR COMPANIONS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"If you could have exterminated us, we'd be dead by now," Jordan shouted at the Daleks. "We know how you work. As long as we're with Bunfy—"

"Buffy," Buffy muttered.

"—no one gets exterminated," Jordan concluded.

"INCORRECT!" another Dalek shouted.

"INITIATE SPACIAL TRANSPORT BEAM!" shouted another.

The whir of machinery began around them, and a sudden wind whipped up through the room, blowing Buffy's hair into her face.

"That sounds kind of bad," Buffy said.

"Not if they're doing what I think they're doing," said the Doctor, his brow furrowed.

"And what's that?" Buffy asked him.

"Transporting the four of us to Adam's fleet," the Doctor explained, "so _he_ can kill us, instead." He glanced back at the Daleks. "Only... you won't. After all, you don't want Adam to have time travel any more than I do."

"ADAM WILL BE IRRELEVANT ONCE WE GAIN THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE," said a Dalek.

"ALL LIFE FORMS WILL BE IRRELEVANT!" another confirmed.

"You won't have your 'primary objective' very much longer if you teleport us all away," the Doctor reminded them.

"INCORRECT," said the Dalek.

"INITIATE GENETIC ISOLATION FIELD!" shouted a second Dalek.

"GENETIC ISOLATION FIELD ACTIVE!" shouted a third.

Buffy began to feel something weird beneath her skin. Like her entire body had pins and needles, and she couldn't shake them off.

"Doctor," she said. "I think they just did something to me."

"Genetic isolation field," the Doctor muttered. "They're isolating your DNA. Making sure you stay here on their ship while the rest of us are transported."

"Okay, that's bad," said Buffy.

"INITIATE DELTA TRANSFER!" shouted a Dalek.

"No," said the Doctor. " _That's_ the bad one."

"DELTA TRANSFER INITIATED!" shouted another Dalek.

"Why?" asked Buffy. "What's it do?"

"Brain swap," said the Doctor.

Buffy felt her heart beating far faster in her chest. She hugged the Doctor a little tighter, not really sure what else she could do, now. "But... you can stop it, right?"

A sudden burst of light, and a rippling sensation through the air, and then... nothing.

"Already did," the Doctor said, with a wink.

"ALERT! ALERT! TELEPORTATION SYSTEMS ERROR!" the Daleks shouted. "DELTA TRANSFER FAILED!"

"Ah, yes, that would be me," the Doctor said. "Had a route around in your teleportations system while I took the temporal teleporter offline. And looks like I took down your brain swapping gizmos, which was an unexpected bonus."

"How long will it take them to fix that?" asked Jordan.

"Couple minutes, if we're lucky," the Doctor informed her.

"And if we're not?" asked Laura.

"Thirty seconds," the Doctor replied.

"INITIATE REPAIRS ON TELEPORTATION AND DELTA WAVE DEVICE SYSTEMS!" shouted a Dalek.

"REPAIR TEAM DISPATCHED!" shouted another.

"Still got ten minutes ETA to reinforcements," Jordan whispered to the others.

"YOU WILL SURRENDER TO THE DALEKS!" the Daleks shouted at Buffy. "OR THE DOCTOR AND YOUR TWO COMPANIONS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Oh, well, now you're really feeling desperate," said the Doctor. "If you're throwing my life into the bargain as well."

"SILENCE!" shouted the Daleks. "SILENCE!"

"What's the matter?" the Doctor asked. "Your brilliant plan backfiring already?"

"THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE WILL BE GAINED," a Dalek proclaimed. "THE HUMANOIDS DESIGNATED SLAYERS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"ALL OTHER LIFE FORMS WILL BE IRRELEVANT!" another Dalek added.

"AND THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME!" the others chanted. "THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SUPREME!"

"Yeah, Doctor, speaking as someone who's fought the Daleks her whole life, they're not feeling desperate, right now," said Jordan. She nodded over at the chanting Daleks. "This is their way of gloating."

"I thought that exterminating was their way of gloating," Laura whispered.

"No, exterminating is their way of living," Jordan corrected.

Buffy frowned. There was something she was overlooking, here. Something the Doctor knew that she obviously hadn't caught, yet.

As if to confirm her suspicions, a sudden dialogue box popped up in the air, revealing a white-domed Dalek that Buffy recognized, from before, as the Dalek Supreme.

"DALEKS WILL ACQUIRE THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE AT ONCE," said the Dalek Supreme. "THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE WILL BE MOVED TO A SECURE LOCATION."

"TELEPORTATION FUNCTIONS OFFLINE!" shouted a Dalek.

"TELEPORTATION SYSTEMS IRRELEVANT," the Dalek Supreme commanded. "THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE MUST BE SECURED. IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO SEPARATE HER FROM HER COMPANIONS."

"WE OBEY!" chorused the Daleks.

"Hang on," said Buffy. "You really _are_ feeling desperate, aren't you? So... why?"

The Daleks edged closer to Buffy and the others, their gun barrels twitching. "YOU WILL FOLLOW," they commanded.

"Or what?" asked Buffy. "What're you going to do? Pick me up and make me follow you? Oh, wait, you can't! Because you don't have hands!"

"YOU WILL OBEY," came the booming voice of the Dalek Supreme, "OR THE PLANET EARTH WILL BE EXTERMINATED."

Buffy froze. Then gave an uneasy laugh. "Yeah, right! I mean, you'd never be able to..." She trailed off, as she noticed the expression on the Doctor's face. "They... can't, right?" she asked the Doctor.

"PLASMA PROTON ENERGY FIELDS SURROUND THE PLANET," the Dalek Supreme informed her. "THE CORRECT ACTIVATION CODE WILL ENSURE ITS DESTRUCTION."

"That's such a bluff!" shouted Jordan. "If you could destroy the Earth, you'd have done it already!"

"No, they probably wouldn't," the Doctor said, with a sigh. "The Earth's a useful temporal nexus point. Everyone on the planet's expendable, but the Daleks wouldn't give up the planet itself unless they had to. For the sake of... say, another temporal nexus point." He glanced down at Buffy, and grimaced.

Temporal nexus point? Oh. Line Hopper. Right.

Buffy looked back at him, her eyes asking a question that she dared not ask aloud, for fear of the answer.

"They're... not bluffing," the Doctor confessed. "The energy field they're describing would cause exactly the interference patterns I saw on Gratewell's instruments, earlier."

Buffy felt her heart sinking. These Slayers of the future might have a duty to protect this whole section of the galaxy, but she was the Slayer of 1800 years ago. And her duty was to protect the Earth.

Buffy took a deep breath. "I'll go," she said, shifting to take the Doctor's hand, instead, "but I'm not leaving the Doctor." She paused, then glanced over at Jordan and Laura, and took Jordan's hand in hers as well. Jordan grabbed Laura. "Or those two." Buffy's eyes went back to the Dalek Supreme. "You got that?"

"AGREED," said the Dalek Supreme.

Buffy didn't move, just trained her eyes on the Dalek Supreme. "And here's a warning for you," she said. "I'm not _a_ Slayer. I'm _the_ Slayer. And if you piss me off, you're going to find out why there are legends about me 1800 years after I'm dead. You got that?"

"STATEMENT—" the Dalek Supreme started, but was cut off by a sudden jolt that shuddered through the whole ship.

The Doctor began grinning ear-to-ear. "And that would be time, then!" he said. He pointed his sonic screwdriver up at the ceiling of the ship, using his spare hand. "You ready to face the consequences of your actions, Daleks?"

Jordan's jaw dropped open. "But... but... IPSA's still not even close to—"

"Of course not!" said the Doctor. "But this isn't IPSA!" He turned on the sonic, which glowed green in his hand.

As if in response to the sonic, the ship lurched again, and the Daleks began screeching warnings and systems diagnostics and just random things that Buffy couldn't understand.

But she did understand one thing.

"It's Adam, isn't it?" she asked the Doctor. "We finally did your plan. We got Adam to fight the Daleks."

"Oh, yes!" said the Doctor, waving the sonic as if it were a beacon. "Adam wants me. And thanks to the sonic, he now knows exactly where I am."

"ADAM IS IRRELEVANT!" said the Dalek Supreme. "HE WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"And if you'd actually tried to exterminate him, you'd know that's easier said than done," said the Doctor. "You might not have wanted to even out the sides, but _I_ did. And right now, I've got two companions back in 1999 doing their level best to ensure that Adam can wipe your army out entirely."

"INCORRECT!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "YOUR COMPANIONS HAVE BEEN LOCATED! THE DALEKS WILL EXTERMINATE—"

"One single Dalek will follow my two companions into the past," the Doctor corrected, "back to when Professor Walsh was still designing Adam. Where, I'm guessing, Amy and Rory will probably try to sabotage Adam's creation."

"THEIR SABOTAGE WILL FAIL," said the Dalek Supreme. "YOUR PLANS ARE—"

" _My_ plans?" the Doctor asked. "Who said anything about the sabotage being _my_ plan? I knew someone wanted me in the 39th century, and I knew they'd follow my companions back in time. Since it was you lot... well, _my_ plan was to make sure that there was a Dalek in the Initiative at exactly the right moment in history. And I believe that I've accomplished that."

"Why'd you do that?" asked Buffy.

"ALERT! ALERT!" shouted one of the Daleks. "DALEK EXTERMINATION BEAMS NOT FUNCTIONAL FOR THE BIOLOGICAL DEMONOID DESIGNATED ADAM."

"To make _that_ happen, of course!" the Doctor told Buffy. "I'll just need to give the Initiative computers a quick buzz of information when I go to pick up Amy and Rory, and voila! A species that can destroy Daleks, while withstanding a direct hit by an extermination beam."

"But... that wouldn't even out the sides!" Buffy protested. "That'd just make Adam completely invincible!"

"Daleks don't need an extermination ray to make sure you're dead," Jordan muttered to Buffy. "Believe me, I know."

"Two armies, perfectly matched, fighting to mutual destruction," the Doctor announced to the Daleks. "Your army. And Adam's."

"HULL BREACH IN SECTOR 20!" shouted a Dalek.

"HULL BREACH IN SECTOR 67!" shouted another.

"ALERT! ALERT! ADAM'S ARMY ENTERING DALEK SHIP!" shouted a group of Daleks.

"DALEKS TO ASSUME BATTLE FORMATIONS!" another Dalek shouted.

"WE OBEY!" chorused the Daleks.

"And that's our cue to run!" said the Doctor, tugging at Buffy's hand and nearly yanking her and the others off their feet as he darted for the nearest door.

"ALERT!" shrieked a Dalek. "ALERT! THE DOCTOR IS ESCAPING WITH THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE!"

"THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE MUST BE SECURED!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE—"

"For the last time," Buffy screamed back at them, as she darted out of the room, "my name is _Buffy_!"


	26. Chapter 26

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

"Why did you do that?" Rory asked, as he and Amy ran for their lives, ducking and dodging past as many grounded metal things as possible to avoid being hit by the bolts of electricity coming from the Initiative soldiers' guns. "Couldn't you have waited until we'd at least taken down the cameras and fire detectors, first?"

"The soldiers seemed busy!" said Amy, spinning around a corner. "I thought they'd be battling back the alien that was trying to force its way down here, not tracking down smoke alarms!"

"So now we're running for our lives," said Rory, "being hunted down by humans, and possibly an alien that's broken into the Initiative, as well. That's just... great, Amy."

"At least we got rid of the 314 project," Amy snapped, ducking down a hallway as a bolt of electricity zapped into the metal wall opposite them.

Rory noticed the soldiers swinging around to cut them off up ahead, and dragged Amy into a nearby room, slamming the door shut behind them. He began dragging tables, chairs, anything he could get his hands on, to create a barricade.

"Unless they put out the fire," said Rory. "Which they probably did as soon as we got caught."

Amy began helping Rory, shoving everything she could find into their barricade. "I didn't need to burn the whole thing," she said. "Just enough."

"And now that you've done that," said Rory, placing the last chair into their barricade, "they'll find some other humans and aliens to chop up, and they'll stitch those together, instead!"

"Yeah, well, at least it made me feel better!" Amy shouted at him.

That was when the door began to open, the barricade shaking and creaking. Amy and Rory backed up, as they heard the American voices telling them that they were under arrest, that they should surrender, that they were under the jurisdiction of the US Military.

And then...

Rory glanced over his shoulder. That was odd. Where there had been a wall, there was suddenly... an opening.

"Where... did that come from?" Rory asked, pointing at it.

Amy spun around, a smile spreading across her face. "Secret exit!"

Rory frowned. He thought... this all seemed too convenient. Almost like they were being herded somewhere, on purpose.

"I don't think..." Rory began.

Amy twirled him around, and kissed him. Which... kind of... blocked out basically everything else.

"Come on!" she said, afterwards, racing through the opening.

Rory hesitated a moment, then stumbled after her. He couldn't argue with persuasion like that.

... ... ...

"He's salvageable," said Angleman, as Walsh entered Lab 314. "Some of the larger demon chunks are burned, but the most important parts appear to be intact. We can rebuild—"

"I've dealt with the intruders," said Walsh, her voice dark and biting.

Angleman faltered. "What did you...?"

"That metallic HST was looking for them," said Walsh. "I'm letting it have them." She stared down at the singed remains of her creation. "They deserve it, after what they did to Adam."

Angleman just nodded.

"Prepare some retcon," said Walsh to Angleman. "I'm going to need to blank the troops' memories, after their pursuit."

* * *

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

"The... the Daleks still aren't shooting at us!" said Jordan, as she continued to race forwards.

"Not while we're holding onto Elizabeth," the Doctor agreed. "Wouldn't want to risk damaging her brain. Far too valuable intact." He beamed at Buffy. "Splendid idea of yours, the hugs!"

"I was afraid they'd use one of those paralyzation whatevers, like they did last time," said Buffy.

"Not while you were with us," said Jordan. "Energy-blast repellant armor. It can get past everything the Daleks throw at us except a direct hit from a Dalek extermination beam."

"It hooks onto any nearby Slayers when it's active," Laura added. "It would have covered you, too. And... I guess the Doctor, since he triggers our Code 5 alerts."

"Yeah; why _do_ you trigger our Code 5 alerts?" Jordan asked.

"Run now, explain later!" the Doctor said, as they zipped down another corridor.

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy caught sight of a Dalek exploding, on her left, as it and its fellows faced off against a sea of Adam lookalikes. A barrage of gunshots rang out, and the Doctor and Buffy hit the ground and began to crawl forwards, so as to avoid the bullets and extermination beams.

As for Jordan and Laura...

A blinding white light of an extermination beam, and milliseconds before it hit, Laura had leapt up and twisted out of the way, flipping through the air and landing on her feet at the other side of the hallway, avoiding the shot. Jordan managed to do a back-flip somersault to avoid two extermination beams, but stumbled as she landed, and winced, blood trickling from her upper-left shoulder.

To Buffy's left, another Dalek facing off against Adam's armies exploded, and a number of Adam lookalikes cried out in pain and crumpled to the ground. Laura pulled Buffy and the Doctor up off the ground, as they emerged at the next hallway, then turned to Jordan.

"What the hell were those monster-things firing?" Jordan asked the others, her face scrunched in pain.

"Projectile weapon," the Doctor said, ripping off the sleeve of Jordan's army suit and scanning his sonic across the wound. "Bullet lodged in the bone. 39th century medicine with Slayer healing — you'll be fine."

The sounds of Daleks chanting nearby chorused through the air, and it was clear to Buffy and the others who had won the previous gun-battle.

They all grabbed one another's hands, once more, and ran.

"Where are we running to?" Buffy asked, as they stampeded down the corridor.

"Somewhere the Daleks aren't!" the Doctor replied.

He turned a corner, and then stopped in his tracks. Buffy just barely prevented herself from running right into the Doctor's back.

There, in front of them, were three Frankenstein-looking monsters, each with their eyes trained on the Doctor.

"Oh, yeah," said one. "First try, and we get the big fish."

The Doctor buzzed his sonic at the nearest door between them and the monsters, and it clanged shut. Then he spun around. "And somewhere the Adam army isn't, either!"

They sprinted in the other direction.

"Well, if we get to the outer hull thing, we can make another one of those bubbles!" said Buffy.

"We can't make another bubble," Jordan gritted. "We didn't pack enough sealant!"

"What?" Buffy cried. "You brought the Doctor to a Dalek ship with no way back?"

"No, _he_ brought _himself_ to a Dalek ship with no way back!" Jordan snapped. " _I_ was the one trying to _stop_ him!"

The Doctor didn't respond to the accusation, but his face was grave and hard. Buffy knew why he would risk everything to go to the Dalek ship. Because he'd wanted to save Julie. And in the end, Julie had been...

Buffy squeezed his hand a little tighter.

The ship shook, violently, and the four of them nearly crashed down onto the floor.

The Doctor regained his footing, and managed to steady the others in the chain. "Julie implied the Daleks had something else planned," he said. "I'm hoping I can stumble across whatever that something is, and, hopefully, discover why the Daleks haven't done it, yet."

"Yeah, I hate to disappoint you, Doctor," said Buffy, "but there's basically no chance that we'll randomly manage to stumble across some super secret weapon!"

"Here's to trying!" the Doctor replied.

So they ran. But the ship kept shaking, and they were now increasingly having to stop and switch directions in order to escape Daleks or Adam-lookalikes or both, and it was becoming apparent to Buffy that the Doctor wasn't going to find what he was looking for.

"ETA to reinforcements?" Laura asked Jordan.

"Any second!" said Jordan. "Not that it'll help. No access to the outer hull. Quick rescue's impossible."

"Wouldn't happen to be able to order up a Scotty, then, would you?" asked the Doctor.

"A Scotty?" asked Laura.

"He means a Spocky," said Jordan. "And, no. Dalek shielding devices block our teleports."

The Doctor adjusted his sonic screwdriver settings with his teeth, and shouted something back to Jordan that sounded like, "Mumph muphumph flumph umph wuggum flimf!"

"Huh?" asked Laura.

"I said," said the Doctor, taking the sonic out of his mouth, "supersonic cancellation field bounced off the magnetic flux of the ship!"

Jordan blinked. "But that's... I mean... that's ingenious!"

"Of course it is," said the Doctor. "I thought it up!"

"And how long before the Daleks work out how to counteract it?" Laura asked.

"Fifteen seconds," said the Doctor.

"So this is a crazy last-minute escape?" Buffy guessed.

"More fun that way!" the Doctor replied, with a grin.

If Buffy hadn't had her hands full, she probably would have smacked the Doctor for that. Or... possibly hugged him. A lot.

(But she definitely — definitely — wouldn't have kissed him. Or used tongues. Nope. She'd never do something like that, and definitely not in a Dalek space ship. Not at all. No way, no how, no... oh, who was she kidding?)

Jordan glanced over her shoulder. "Laura, you've got a hand free. Order up a Spocky."

"I _don't_ have a hand free!" Laura insisted, holding up the crossbow she was still clutching in her left hand.

Buffy gaped at her. " _Why_ did you bring _that_?" she cried.

"I couldn't just leave your..." Laura started.

Jordan dropped Buffy and Laura's hands, then snatched the crossbow away from Laura. "There," she said, nestling it under one arm with only a slight wince of pain from her injured shoulder, as she took Buffy and Laura's hands, again. "Now, get us out of here!"

Laura flipped open the wrist-com, using her now-free hand, and shouted, "Need a Spocky for four, ASAP!"

There was a pause, then, from the com, came a muffled, "Not from inside a Dalek ship you don't!"

They all stopped, as they came face-to-face with a group of Daleks just in front of them.

"PRIMARY OBJECTIVE HAS BEEN LOCATED!" the Daleks shouted. "SURRENDER, OR YOUR COMPANIONS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

They spun around, and discovered a group of Adam-lookalikes coming the other way, trapping them.

"And there's the Doctor," said one of the Adam-lookalikes. "Looks like we got ourselves the prize catch."

"We really, really need a Spocky, right now!" Laura said.

The Doctor adjusted the settings on the sonic screwdriver using his teeth, then glanced over at Laura and Jordan, as if to say, 'ready when you are.'

"We can't—" the voice on the other end of the com began.

"Just do it!" shouted Jordan over her shoulder.

"Okay, okay!" said the voice. "Sheesh! Starting Spocky now."

Buffy looked at the Doctor, who was just standing there, sonic in hand, his eyes now fixed back on the two groups edging towards them.

"Doctor!" Buffy hissed at him.

The Doctor shook his head. "Bit longer."

The two groups edged closer to them, each army eyeing the other one, warily, trying to figure out how they could get rid of the other army without destroying their objectives.

"Bit longer," the Doctor said, again.

Buffy saw one of the Adam-lookalikes grab for the Doctor, just as a Dalek shouted, "EXTERMINATE!"

"Now!" the Doctor shrieked, and buzzed the sonic at the wall.

An alarm blared across the Dalek ship the moment the Doctor turned on his sonic screwdriver, but Buffy didn't know what the alarm said, because the world lurched around her, her stomach heaved, her head spun, and the next thing she knew...

She was somewhere else.

"Ha!" said the Doctor, finally letting go of Buffy's hand. "I knew that would work! What did I say? Complete genius!"

Buffy just stared at the new surroundings. The cold metal of the room she'd just appeared in, the sleek black plastic-looking pad beneath her feet, the bolted door in front of her.

"Bunfy?" asked Laura.

Buffy opened her mouth to reply, but felt her legs give out under her, and toppled down towards the ground instead.

Four hands caught her before she managed to hit the floor.

"Oh, she's never gone through a teleporter before, has she?" asked Jordan. "I didn't think of that." She bit her lower lip, as her left hand slipped beneath Buffy's weight. The crossbow beneath her arm clattered to the floor. She glanced over at her still-bleeding shoulder. "Damn projectile weapon!"

"I thought Bunfy was teleported to the 39th century," Laura said, adjusting her own grip on Buffy so she could take over from Jordan.

"Temporal teleport works in a slightly different way from a normal spacial teleporter," said the Doctor, rushing over to relieve Jordan. "And by slightly different, of course, I mean completely different. In that the two are not at all related to one another, except by name. And... I wouldn't put a whole lot of weight on that shoulder, Jordan. Take it easy for a while, trip to the medbay and a cold-pack, and you'll be fine in no time."

Jordan grumbled, but reluctantly let Buffy go.

"I think," Buffy breathed, "I'm going to throw up."

"Of course you're not!" the Doctor told her. "I've seen you cut your way through an Ictogrob's remains without even feeling queasy. Teleport should be nothing!"

"We can get you to the med-bay," Laura offered.

"No, no, just... give me a second," said Buffy. "I'm fine, I just need to... figure out which way is up..." She managed to regain her footing, and took a number of deep breaths, so the world stopped swimming around her. Her head still felt like it was full of helium, but at least now she could stand. "There was something important I was supposed to remember," she muttered. "I just can't... quite..." She held her head in her hands, trying to get her brain back in order.

Laura and Jordan just looked at her, worry evident on their faces.

"No, wait, I remember!" Buffy looked up at Laura, and pointed at her. "My name. It's Buffy. Not Bunfy. Get it right."


	27. Chapter 27

The moment Buffy walked through the door into the Slayer ship, she was mobbed.

At first, Buffy had pushed past the mob, because she had work to do. Her primary concern was making sure that IPSA didn't arrest, lock up, or kill the Doctor. But considering that (so long as she was out of danger) _her_ word of authority apparently trumped all others — even this Marya person's — this wound up being pretty easy.

"He's the real Doctor," said Buffy. "And you're not harming him. Ever."

And after a brief conversation in which Buffy explained that she'd faked the transmission, that the Daleks had actually been the ones who wanted her in the 39th century, and that the Doctor's plan had _not_ involved her getting tortured, the Slayers all seemed to accept this.

"The Doctor destroyed the Daleks' time technology," Jordan added. "We won't have to worry about the same kind of assault on our own past. At least, not for a little while."

"And he saved our lives," Laura chimed in.

The one person who was most happy about Jordan and Laura's lives being saved, weirdly enough, was the big red-eyed lizard-thing that everyone kept calling Freddy. And he also seemed to be the one most concerned about Jordan's shoulder, sending her into the med-bay as soon as possible.

"I believe thiss Doctor iss honorable," Freddy rasped, once Jordan had left. "I apologizze for any misstakess made lasst time he wass here, and promisse he will be treated better in the future. I grant you both free reign of thiss sship."

Buffy grinned. Big lizard-thing he may be, but Buffy kind of liked Freddy. He seemed to honestly care about the welfare of the girls on board his ship.

The person everyone called 'Officer Marya' was a different story.

Marya eyed them both, carefully, her beady black eyes taking in the Doctor with an interest that Buffy didn't think had anything to do with his looks or personality.

"I hope," Marya said to Buffy, at last, "that you will join me when I return to Korjensky. The Officials would be very interested in meeting you." She glanced over at the Doctor, her cold eyes fixed on him a little too intensely. " _Both_ of you."

There was something greedy in Marya's eyes that Buffy really didn't like. A gleam of selfishness and hunger, as if the Doctor were Marya's answer to everything, and Marya was never going to let him go.

(Was this how that Green jerk had looked at the Doctor, in the Initiative? Was this the same expression on Quentin Travers' face when the Doctor had been lead into the Watchers Council?)

Buffy looked between Officer Marya and the Doctor. And promised herself that — no matter what — she was _never_ letting the Doctor set one foot in the Korjensky Star System.

Buffy stepped in front of the Doctor, giving Marya a dark, predatory stare, and Marya seemed to back off. A slightly guilty look overcame her, and she muttered some platitude about how the two of them were guests of IPSA and how the Korjensky Officials welcomed them, then rushed off.

At which point, Buffy was mobbed again.

Girls crowded around her, trying desperately to get close to her, get an autograph, find out what she was like, and tell her how much they loved her. And... wow, talk about being deified after death! Apparently, Buffy had gone from being she-who-hangs-out-a-lot-in-cemeteries to the vanquisher of evil across the globe, the sole defender of humanity against creatures more terrifying than anything Buffy had ever seen in the Hellmouth, and — this was the part that really confused Buffy — the First Slayer.

Which was seriously weird.

She tried to explain to them that actually, there had been a ton of Slayers before her, and Sineya was the First Slayer, and — why didn't they know that, when they called their Slayer detection scan thingies "sineyic detectors"?

But apparently, any historical corrections Buffy gave them — including, annoyingly enough, her name — were lost in the sea of Slayers trying to shout over one another and get close to her. Buffy was starting to feel a little claustrophobic, and they really shouldn't be fawning over her like this, and...

Oh, screw it! Buffy was loving this.

Tons of people telling her how wonderful she was? People who, 1800 years from her present, revered her and loved her and thought she was amazing? Considering she'd started this year being teased and taunted by vampires who thought she was a loser, chewed out and humiliated by college professors, then blown off by Parker — this was pretty cool.

Take that, high school math teacher whose name she couldn't remember! Because 2,000 years later, she was considered a genius to rival Socrates! Take that, Homecoming Queen Selection Committee! Because 2,000 years later, she was the Homecoming Queen to rival all Homecoming Queens! And a serious take that to all the guys who'd ever dumped her! Because now, any guy in the galaxy would totally be all over her. Even weird-freaky-lizard-guy Freddy seemed completely enthralled by her.

(Buffy victory dance!)

Eventually, all the Slayers agreed that she should tell them the story of how she defeated some abomination or something (which was a topic that Buffy knew absolutely nothing about) thus saving a sister that Buffy never actually had.

"How about I just tell you how I defeated Olvikan, instead?" Buffy asked them.

Judging by the chorus of cheers and excitement surrounding her, Buffy guessed that this was an okay substitute.

So she hopped up on a chair, and began telling them all about how she and her friends had gone up against the Mayor — without any of the horrible, heart-wrenching parts, like Angel almost dying or the Doctor getting tortured by demons or her trying, over and over again, to save Faith even though she refused to be saved — but she'd only just gotten to the part where Anya had told Xander about the last Ascension she'd witnessed, when something caught Buffy's eye.

Not something.

Someone.

Buffy turned, and there, in the corner of the room, sitting on a raised bench, his back to her, was the Doctor. Just sitting there, his posture slumped, his hands clutching that chunky black cell phone — Julie's — as if it were all he had left.

Buffy stopped her story.

She turned to the others, the sea of Slayers all looking up to her, all so enthralled by her every word. Who was she to be giving them advice? She was the reason the Doctor kept getting tortured, kept getting broken, kept getting beaten down. She hadn't gotten him out of the Concurrence when they'd tortured him. She hadn't gotten him out of the Initiative. She'd basically shot him and handed him over to the Watcher's Council the first time she met him. And now... the Slayers had thrown him at Adam just to get her out.

She hopped down from the chair, leaving her story unfinished.

The Slayers all began whining at her, pleading with her to go on, asking why she'd left off telling her story, because they wanted to know what had happened next! Buffy didn't stop, as she pushed through them, but glanced back over her shoulder after she'd emerged from the dense Slayer-crowd.

"Some things are more important than fighting monsters," she told them.

Then she redirected her attention back to where it counted, where she needed to be. And went over to the Doctor.

He sat facing a large window that looked out upon a beautiful nebula, the purple and blue colors dancing before Buffy's eyes. The Doctor stared at it without really seeing it. His hand still wrapped tight around that cell phone.

Buffy touched his shoulder, and he glanced back at her. Their eyes met, the both of them exchanging sorrow and comfort in that one gaze. He turned back to the window, and Buffy sat down beside him, cross-legged on the bench, her hand still resting against his arm.

For several minutes, they just stayed that way. Not speaking in words because no words could be said. Here, in the infinity of space, in a battlefield more beautiful than any Buffy had fought in before, they had no words. No platitudes. Just the grief and loss and sorrow that leaked out from their guilt-ridden psyches, and floated amongst the stars like so much space-dust.

"I'm sorry," said Buffy, at last.

The Doctor's eyes flicked down to the phone. "So am I."


	28. Chapter 28

"Your fans are waiting for you," the Doctor reminded her, after about three minutes of complete silence between them. "Better not keep them."

"I don't have anything to tell them," Buffy replied. She folded her hands into her lap. "They think I'm someone I'm not."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her.

"You know," said Buffy. "Brave, noble, heroic, completely competent, smarter than Einstein, and..." She paused, then gave a small laugh. "Basically, they think I'm you."

The Doctor didn't answer, but his face fell a little more, and he looked even sadder than he had before.

"Everything's just so... weird," Buffy confessed. Although she didn't mention that everything had been weird since before she'd ever set foot in the future. "I can't wrap my head around — everything — and they want me to give them advice. Like I've got all the answers. Like I know what I'm doing. But I'm not... Bunfy Sompters or whatever. I'm Buffy Summers. She who hangs out in cemeteries. She who hunts vampires with pointy sticks." She stared off into the vast purple cloud of the nebula. "She who has bad luck on her birthday even 1800 years in the future."

The Doctor kept his eyes fixed on the cell phone, turning it over and over again.

"Anyways, you're my go-to answer-guy," said Buffy, rubbing his shoulder. "I'm just the one who goes in at the last second and kicks ass."

"For what it's worth," said the Doctor, sliding the cell phone into his pocket, "I think they're right about you."

Buffy wanted to laugh this off and say something completely glib that would melt the tension between them, but her words stuck in her throat, and she felt more like crying than laughing.

She just shook her head, and looked away from him.

"Elizabeth," he said — in that way he always did that made that name sound so beautiful, so brave and inspiring and wonderful, so much like it was hers — "you _have_ answers. You have all the ones that count."

Buffy still couldn't look at him, her eyes drifting off into the nebula.

"You were tortured," she whispered, "for two months. And I didn't know."

"Ultimately, it was for the best," said the Doctor. "If I hadn't been in the Initiative, Julie might never have discovered the Daleks' plot, and I might never have worked out the Daleks' real plans. I'd have arrived here, been swept into a war, and never realized you were... coming, as well."

And, yes, he was doing that thing again, where he was completely fine with harm coming to himself as long as no one else got injured. Pretending that he didn't feel it. Pretending it didn't hurt.

(But Buffy had seen him hurting. She'd held him in her arms as he'd cried in the middle of a mindscape desert.)

"Besides," said the Doctor. "It's hardly the first time I've been tortured. Come to think of it, not even the first time I've been tortured in Sunnydale."

"This was different," Buffy said.

"How? You couldn't have gotten me out of the Initiative any more than you could have gotten me out of the Concurrence."

"Because they were human!" Buffy said. "Human beings with souls and consciences and... a sense of right and wrong! You were tortured by..." She could barely get out the words, "...the people I'm sworn to protect."

The Doctor glanced over at Buffy.

She stared down at her lap, her hands clenched therein, her shoulders drooping. "I saved all their lives countless times. And if I hadn't... you'd never have..." She shook her head. "It feels like I did it. It feels like I let it happen."

The Doctor absorbed this, a solemn look on his face.

"I've been fighting to protect humanity, like we were something special," Buffy continued. "Like we were better than the monsters. But now..." She squeezed her eyes shut. "...I'm still fighting. But I don't know what I'm fighting for."

The Doctor took her hand in his own, and Buffy looked up into his eyes. Those sweet, kind, trusting eyes that never changed, no matter what incarnation she met. "Humanity deserves to be saved," he said. "Despite their mistakes."

"I just don't know," Buffy confessed.

The Doctor gestured at the space ship around them. "Just think about it! Think of all you've achieved in the last 1800 years!" he said. "You. The human race. Amazing!"

"Yeah, amazing," Buffy muttered. "We managed to resurrect a monster that nearly destroyed the Earth. Go us."

"Not that. Look past the mistakes!" The Doctor pointed at the nebula, through the window, the soft purple light gliding across his fingertips. "The human race has gone out into the stars, looking for answers. But instead, you've brought about peace. Unity."

"And we've repeated all of our worst atrocities," said Buffy. "I mean... just look at the Slayer! First it was the Watchers Council, and now it's this Korjensky whatever. It's the same thing."

The Doctor glanced at the women around them. "Oh, Elizabeth. It isn't. It definitely, definitely isn't."

"I saw how that Marya person was looking at you," said Buffy. "She wants time travel, and she's going to lock you up forever so she can get it."

The Doctor grinned. "Well, she can try. But she might have a hard time getting around the Slayer Constitution."

Buffy raised an eyebrow at the Doctor.

"Was very good friends with President Hiskaloph," he explained. "She wrote me in. Amendment One!"

Buffy ventured a little smile. The Doctor was such a namedropper. Even when Buffy didn't actually know the names he was dropping.

"Thing was, in the old timeline," the Doctor continued, "before the War, before the Slayer, before any of this — the Galactic Federation was a loose, dissociated group of planets, only allied because they didn't have the funds to start the vast, inter-planetary wars they wanted to fight. An economic unification, one with no real meaning or substance. But in this new timeline, all that's changed. And it's because of this. Because of the Slayer."

Buffy gave him a skeptical look.

"All those problems you had with the Watchers Council," said the Doctor, "about them not saving Angel, firing Giles for protecting you, treating their Slayers as weapons and not as people — that's gone, now, Elizabeth. And in its place is an organization that works to do the impossible. Every single day."

"Fight Daleks?" asked Buffy.

"Promote peace in cultures where the word doesn't even exist!" the Doctor corrected, a gleam in his eyes. "You know what Korjensky is, yes?"

"Yeah," Buffy said. "Slayer star system. With... some Slayer training school University thing, I guess."

"The school isn't just for Slayers, anymore," said the Doctor. "Some time ago, Korjensky opened its doors to any nonhuman that could keep up with the Slayer training. That's the Korjensky reputation — beat back the invaders, then invite those they defeat to join them. Ask them to send their best warriors to the Korjensky school. Over the next millennia or so, the best military leaders of a thousand hostile races will be re-educated on Korjensky, and return to their home planets to promote a new perspective. A new purpose. A way to continue to fight, but fight for something better."

Buffy still looked skeptical.

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder. "You've met Freddy, over there?"

Buffy nodded.

"Ice Lord," the Doctor said. "A noble of the Ice Warriors, from Mars. Nasty, militaristic race, Ice Warriors. Invaded Earth a couple times in the past. But Freddy would give his right arm for any human on board this starship. And so would any other Ice Warrior in his clan, I'll bet."

Buffy glanced back at Freddy, who was conversing with the other Slayers nearby.

" _This_ is the human race, Elizabeth," said the Doctor. "Not the Watchers Council massacring teenage girls. Not the Initiative torturing nonhumans. It's millions of humans coming together to convince militaristic cultures to fight for what's right."

"But that's just _some_ human beings," Buffy insisted. "Not _all_ of them. I mean, I've now met human beings that were worse than the vampires I kill all the time. Why would I still fight to protect those guys?"

"Because you're not fighting for the person," the Doctor told her. "You're fighting for that person's right to make the correct choice. Just like Korjensky does, all the time — teaching races to be better. And it is possible; even the most horrible humans can change. Julie..." The Doctor's voice wavered, and he glanced down. "...she was one of the worst at the Initiative. But she changed. Saw that what she was doing was wrong, and became a better person. In the end, she died doing the right thing." He took Buffy's other hand in his own, and gazed back into her eyes with such an intensity that it nearly took her breath away. "When you give people that choice, the ones who make the right decision don't just shimmer, they glow! They shine — brighter than you can imagine! Bright enough that you can see their legacy far into the future! Even 1800 years later."

Buffy said nothing.

"Korjensky is based on _you_ , Elizabeth," said the Doctor. "Your philosophies. Your kindness and compassion. Your fierce determination to help others and defend those who need defending. Your legacy has inspired all of this." He stared into her eyes, leaning down a little closer to her. "The Slayer. A Time Lord consciousness, but a human heart. That's your real power. Your real strength. And it's all inspired by you just being yourself."

Buffy wanted, so much, to lean into him. Or just... grab his head and kiss him. But she... couldn't. She looked away, instead, unable to meet the Doctor's eyes. Right now, she didn't feel like she should inspire anyone.

"I'm not like that," she muttered.

"Elizabeth—"

"I wanted to kill them," she confessed, venturing a glance back at him. "The... Initiative people. When I first found out what happened to you. I was just... so angry, so upset, that I knew... if I started... I'd never stop." She paused. "I could have massacred everyone."

"But you didn't."

"But I could have!" She gave a small shudder. "And... I wanted to. Because they hurt you. And I wanted them to hurt back."

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but Buffy cut him off.

"And don't say you knew I wouldn't, because that's such a lie!" said Buffy. "You thought I would. It's why you never wanted me to find out where you were. Because you thought, if I ever found out, I'd go crazy and kill everyone."

The Doctor hesitated. "I... might have... been worried about the possibility," he confessed. "But you still chose not to. That's the important thing."

"Yeah, I made the right choice this time," Buffy said. "What about next time?"

"You'll make the right choice again."

Buffy shook her head. "But you don't know that." She glanced around herself. "I get how this time stuff works, Doctor. Everything you've just told me about Korjensky and the Slayers is inspired by my _legacy._ The stuff I do in my own future. That means none of this is set in stone. I could go back home, flip out and give in to my dark side, and the next time you come out to the 39th century, you'll find out that Korjensky is actually evil and being led by Darth Vader or something."

The Doctor gave a small laugh. "Elizabeth—"

"No," said Buffy. "I know what you're going to say. You believe in me, you trust me, you know I'll do the right thing. You always say that. But that doesn't make it true. The truth is, the future's completely in my hands, and it shouldn't be."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "You know someone better?"

"You."

The Doctor's expression fell a little. "Ah."

"I'm not like you," Buffy said. "I'm not smart. Or all-forgiving or super-compassionate or anything. I overlook totally obvious things that anyone else should have picked up on. I second-guess myself all the time. I lose my temper, I freak out, and I completely screw stuff up. My plans don't work — not unless I have serious input from everyone else. And as for the way I treat others..." She gave a small, dejected shrug. "I abandon people. I lie to everyone I'm closest to, I pretend things are fine when they really aren't, and I push my closest friends away from me just because I want to keep them safe. And most of the time, that doesn't even work."

The Doctor just held her hands a little tighter. The light from the nebula danced across their skin, weaving them both into a ballet they didn't know they were dancing.

"I'm not perfect, Doctor," said Buffy, leaning into him a little closer. "I'm not Bunfy Sompters. I can't ever be Bunfy Sompters. In the end, all I am is just... Buffy."

"I know," said the Doctor, in a voice so soft that it seemed to brush across Buffy's cheek like a caress. "But that's enough."

Buffy met his eyes with her own, and there was so much affection and trust and hope inside of them, so much adoration in his voice. And she could see, in his eyes, that... he knew. He knew she had her weaknesses, her dark side, her anger and rage and despair. But even with all of her imperfections, he really thought that she was amazing.

( _You chose not to. That's the important thing._ )

And she thought... if he believed in her... maybe she could believe in herself, too.

She swept him into a hug, burying her face in his shirt, letting everything she'd bottled up come pouring out of her, as she held him. Every, "I'm sorry" and "it's my fault" and "I'm so scared" come bubbling to the surface. Every tear of relief, every hysterical sob, every emotion that had been torturing her since she'd first discovered what had happened to the Doctor.

And he let her.

He offered no judgment, no criticism, no cajoling or coaxing or frantic attempts to stop it. He simply wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his embrace, and allowed her to find solace in him. His presence. His very self.

(Her warm fuzzy.)

Eventually, as the deluge of thoughts and worries and fears began to subside, Buffy managed to regain her self-control, and pulled away from him. He gave her a reassuring smile, then popped up off the bench, offering her a hand and pulling her to her feet.

Buffy returned the smile with her own.

"Thanks," she said.

The Doctor nodded, as if it were nothing at all. Then he glanced around the room, squeezed her hand a little tighter, and leaned in, whispering into her ear:

"Angel's still alive."

Buffy stared at him. "Wait, how do you...?"

But the Doctor had already dropped her hand, turned, and walked off.


	29. Chapter 29

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

"What is this place?" Rory asked, as they stepped through the secret door they'd discovered in the room they'd been trapped inside, down in the Initiative. It led to a short passageway with gleaming aluminum walls.

"Not sure!" Amy shouted, darting forwards and diving through a semi-circular lengthwise opening at the end of the passageway. "But it keeps going over here!"

Rory clapped the secret doors shut behind him, then raced after Amy, climbing through the semi-circular opening and arriving in...

A vast concrete bunker covered with massive, circular air vents. Judging by the intensity of the overhead lighting and the chemical tanks near the corners, Rory guessed this room was probably intended to be some sort of operating arena, when it was done.

But it wasn't. It was simply a vast, empty bunker, littered with sealed cardboard boxes, and a few metal gurneys. Disconnected wires lay strewn across the floor.

Amy sprinted across the room towards the circular concrete door at the far end. A door that slid aside for Amy the moment she approached, almost as if... someone wanted them to go somewhere.

"Uh, Amy, I don't think..." Rory started.

"Come on, slowpoke!" Amy replied, stepping through the door with complete ease and certainty, as if mysterious doors opening for no discernible reason was a common occurrence for her. "I can see a way out!"

(And considering that the Doctor could get into and out of anything, mysterious doors opening kind of was a regular thing for them.)

"I just think... maybe... this whole escape is a little too convenient," Rory said. But he still rushed after his wife, even as he was speaking, because he knew what she'd say.

"Either we take this escape route," Amy replied, just as Rory expected, "or we stay here to be turned into some creepy part-demon monster by a deranged scientist." She practically dragged Rory through the door as soon as he got close enough for her to catch his arm. "I know which option I'd rather take."

The concrete door rolled shut behind them, as they emerged into a separate side-room, with many more packaged boxes and even more disconnected wiring — a small concrete room with a grated window of light along one side.

Amy ran back to double-check that the un-moveable, circular concrete door was in place, separating them from the Initiative soldiers. Then she came back into the room, with a grin, unable to hold back her curiosity any longer. She bent down and started unpacking one of the boxes. Inside, there was... well, basically, a lot of computer pieces.

"What are those?" asked Rory.

"Don't know," said Amy, shoving one piece into her pocket. "That's what we've got the..." She hesitated, then glanced around the room, her eyes searching the corners for hidden cameras. "...our friend for."

"And you think he'll be able to...?" Rory just barely caught the item Amy chucked at him through the air — something computery, it looked like. He turned it over in his hand.

"That looks important," Amy told him. "We'd better steal it."

"And then rip all these boxes up and tear the equipment to pieces?" Rory guessed, pocketing the device.

"And, if we're lucky, blow up the Initiative!" Amy drifted over to another box, tearing it open. "Take that, laws of time!"

Rory hesitated. He didn't know all that much about time travel, but... if this messed with the laws of time... he had the feeling they might get into trouble for this.

"I... don't know if the Doctor would... really want us to..." Rory began.

"Then he shouldn't have left us here by ourselves, should he?" Amy replied. She grabbed up a box beside her, and threw it at Rory. "I'm not about to sit around doing nothing. And neither are you. Now, start breaking things, already!"

Rory caught the box but buckled under its weight, the cardboard sliding through his fingers and smashing against the ground. The tinkle of breaking glass echoed through the small room. Rory cringed, but knelt down by the box and tore it open, like Amy said. After all, Amy was Amy. Stubborn, headstrong, determined to do the right thing. And... she was the person Rory loved more than anyone else in the world.

(Besides, he was pretty sure she was right.)

"And if you see anything that looks like an Initiative-destroying bomb," Amy added, "let me know!"

The box Rory had dropped didn't contain a bomb. It looked like it contained... monitoring equipment. Smashed up and broken, sure, but still intact enough that Rory could tell this wasn't alien monitoring equipment, or futuristic monitoring equipment. It was the sort of monitoring equipment you'd expect to find in the year 2000.

Rory had a nasty suspicion that he couldn't blame the Initiative and the 314 project on aliens at all. That humans were responsible for all of it.

Rory and Amy both jumped to their feet the moment they heard the concrete door grating open behind them. Followed by the shout of Initiative soldiers emerging.

Amy scrambled towards her husband, and grabbed Rory by the wrist.

"Enough sabotage!" she said. She yanked him forwards, and shouted, "Run!"

They raced forwards. Out of the concrete bunkers, through a heavy iron door that just randomly opened for them, and into a cave network. The iron door clanged shut behind them, sealing them inside the dark, empty caves.

Amy brought out her cell phone, using the flash on the video feature to illuminate the darkness as she continued to dash forwards.

"Amy, wait," said Rory. "These _are_ caves right around the mouth of Hell... which means they're full of monsters, and..."

Amy glanced over her shoulder and winked at him, and Rory gave up the warning.

What was the point?

In the end, Amy was just... Amy. Beautiful, amazing, wonderful Amy, who he'd give up everything and anything to be with. He loved her, just like this, her flaming red hair dancing behind her, the excitement sending a flush to her cheeks as her feet pounded the ground.

She loved this.

So he did, too.

It wasn't until about three minutes later that Rory reconsidered his previous statement. Three minutes later, when an ominous sound echoed through the caves — a grating metallic voice that sent every nerve in Rory's body into sudden panic.

"CHRONON PARTICLES DETECTED IN THE VICINITY!" shouted the voice. "THE DOCTOR'S COMPANIONS ARE NEARBY! THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Amy halted in her tracks, then backed up a little ways. "Oh, God."

Rory, noticing the bright light from Amy's mobile, snatched it up and shut it off. Darkness. They could hide in the darkness! Or... on second thought... Rory spun around and yanked Amy after him, running back the way they'd come.

Amy, still trying to get over her shock, stumbled as she was pulled along.

"But that's..." she said.

"A Dalek," said Rory. "And since it knows we're the Doctor's companions, I'm guessing it followed us here from the 39th century."

"That was the alien trying to get into the Initiative!" Amy realized. "It was trying to get at us, because it was afraid we'd destroy the 314 project!"

Rory heard the metallic voice gaining on them, now shouting, "SEEK! LOCATE! EXTERMINATE! SEEK! LOCATE! EXTERMINATE!"

"You're heading right back to the Initiative!" Amy hissed to Rory.

"US military or Daleks?" Rory asked. "I'm choosing the US military." He panted for breath as he kept running, and the sound of a Dalek extermination ray echoed through the cave network. The air from a little ways behind them illuminated with the sudden white blast of the energy weapon.

The illumination gave them a glimpse of their surroundings — and they were close enough to the concrete bunker rooms that the area around them was covered with packed cardboard boxes. If they could just get back to that iron door, get into the Initiative, then maybe...

With the sudden burst of illumination, however, Amy spotted something as well. A fork in the cave network, just up ahead of them. A passage that led straight forwards, and a passage that led off to the right.

"Over here!" she whispered, dragging Rory towards the right-most fork.

That was when...

Clang!

Rory heard the sudden metallic thud of something falling into place from the ceiling, could feel the breeze as it thunked down in front of his face and into the dirt centimeters from where they were standing. He reached out to discover a set of heavy metal bars keeping them in place.

"EXTERMINATE!"

The next sudden burst of light — far brighter, this time, since the Dalek was closer — revealed to Amy and Rory what they'd feared. A set of metal bars now blocked the passage in front of them, the forking tunnel network now forever out of their reach.

Someone had wanted them here, all right. Someone very angry that they'd destroyed her 314 project. Someone who'd be perfectly happy to give the Dalek exactly what it wanted.

"A trap," Amy muttered. "Of course it's a trap."

"Of course," Rory agreed. He began to think, furiously, as he could hear the Dalek advancing towards them from behind. "It's dark. We could sneak past the Dalek when it's—"

"They've got thermal imaging!" Amy hissed at him.

"EXTERMINATE!"

Amy and Rory threw themselves behind a nearby pile of boxes, as the next shot revealed the outline of a Dalek, flying through the air, its eyestalk twitching, menacingly. It drifted forwards, the light from the shot fading and leaving nothing but the cold, blue light from the Dalek's eyestalk in the middle of the darkness. The eyestalk swiveled, then fixed itself on Amy and Rory's hiding place.

"DOCTOR'S COMPANIONS LOCATED," it said, the lights at the top of its domed head flashing bright white in the pitch blackness. "THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Amy and Rory held their breaths, huddling together in the darkness. Only a miracle could get them out of this alive.

Rory closed his eyes, and waited to die.

But sometimes — just sometimes — miracles do happen.


	30. Chapter 30

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

Jordan, her arm now bandaged and her wound now essentially healed, leaned against the back-wall of the ship's bridge, absorbing all the information about what had happened since their escape from the Dalek ship.

"And after the Daleks and Adam are done fighting, we can just swoop in and pick off the survivors," Buffy said. "Totally easy."

"And that's the end of it?" Ashley clarified, standing a little ways away. "There's no... extra something the Daleks have up their sleeves?"

"There usually is, with the Daleks," Wendy confirmed. "And it's usually a bad something."

"There is," Buffy admitted. "Julie said the Daleks were planning something else. But it was something against IPSA, not against Adam's armies. The Daleks didn't realize that Adam was a threat, so I doubt they'll be able to counteract his armies in time to save themselves."

"Ashley's right, this seems too easy," said Jordan. "I don't know how Adam operates, but Daleks don't just give up, and they don't just fall into traps."

"What are you guys saying?" Trista demanded. "This is Bunfy Sompters' plan! It's going to work perfectly!"

"Buffy," Buffy corrected, with a sigh. "B-U-F-F-Y. There's no 'bun' about it."

"With Bun—sorry, Buffy on our side, there's no possible way any of this could ever backfire," Trista informed them.

"And, I've got to say, if the Daleks _were_ going to pull out some kind of last-minute super-plan to kill us all, they'd probably have done so by now," Wendy added.

It was at that exact moment that, from across the bridge, Vivian swore. Very, very loudly.

Ashley, Jordan, Trista, Wendy, Laura, and Buffy all turned to her. Vivian was shuffling through a bunch of air displays, incomprehensible data scrolling on a side-screen to her left. Her eyes were fixed on the images with mounting concern, her brow was creased in concentration, and when a lock of purple hair fell across her face, she didn't even bother to brush it away.

"What?" asked Ashley.

"Vanquishers 16 and 18 are approaching fast," said Vivian.

She made a spinny gesture with her hands, and another screen popped up, showing a girl with exactly the same concerned expression on her face, although the background of the ship this other girl was seated in looked more white than gold.

"VQ-17 to VQ-16, what's going on?" asked Vivian.

"I've got no idea," said the girl on Vanquisher-16. "We're being squeezed in right and left by you guys and VQ-15. Up and down, we're hemmed in by VQ-26 and VQ-6."

Vivian pulled up a number of other popup window scrolling things that Buffy couldn't read, and swore again.

"I'll try to work this out," said Vivian, closing the communications window from Vanquisher-16. She began shuffling through more and more screens, her face looking graver and graver, then glanced over her shoulder. "Ash, get Freddy in here right away. Code Mauve."

Ashley spun around and sprinted out the bridge.

"What's going on?" asked Jordan.

"Our fleet's being consolidated into one location, VQ's on the outer perimeter not responding," said Vivian. "Dalek forces gathering nearby. Looks like they're waiting to take our fleet out in one go."

"Why didn't we detect this collapsing force field sooner?" asked Jordan. "We've got instruments for that sort of thing!"

"There isn't a force field!" Vivian protested. "I don't know what's sticking us all together, but it's not a force field!"

"Wait, but this _is_ a space ship, right?" said Buffy. "I mean, this thing can go up, down, left, right, and everything in between. Can't we go diagonally or something, to escape?"

"We can try," said Vivian, sitting down by the control panel, punching a few buttons, and reaching for the joystick that controlled the ship.

"No! Bad idea!" the Doctor said, as he raced into the room. He grabbed Vivian's arm and pulled it away. "Very, very bad idea! Bad with a capital B!"

"If we leave the ship on autopilot, we'll be trapped in the middle of a gigantic IPSA Fleet cube!" Vivian protested, yanking her arm away from him. "The Daleks will—"

"The Daleks won't," the Doctor corrected, "so long as _this_ particular ship happens to be part of that cube. The moment we leave the formation, everyone else becomes expendable."

"The Doctor iss correct," said Freddy, as he entered with Ashley. "The Dalekss will not desstroy thiss ship while Ssompterss iss on board."

"Vivian says there's no force field holding us in," said Jordan. "There's no reason this should be happening!"

"Gravity pocket?" Ashley guessed.

"Hyper-warp field manipulatorss?" Freddy put in.

"Not that I can see!" said Vivian.

Buffy studied the flight controls, thoughtfully. "Okay, I'm no 39th century person, but... those controls look kind of simple to use. Is it possible that maybe... just maybe... the outer ships squeezing you in aren't actually being controlled by IPSA anymore?"

"No!" said all the IPSA members at once.

"The controls are on a morphic locking system — they only work when used by a Slayer," said Vivian. "And there are alerts to let the rest of the fleet know when those safety protocols have been bypassed."

"Only Code 5'ss can pilot the sshipss," Freddy confirmed. "Only Sslayerss..." His eyes darted over to the Doctor. "...and the Doctor."

"Yeah, I mean, the Daleks might be smart, but they're not Slayers!" said Ashley.

Buffy looked at the Doctor. The Doctor looked back at Buffy. And she knew they were both thinking the same thing.

"The Daleks don't have Slayers," said Buffy, "but Adam's army does."

"That sort of morphic locking mechanism is difficult to break. But not impossible!" the Doctor added, whipping out his sonic and diving down to scan the green light against the control panel. "Which means, at a guess, your locking mechanism has already been broken."

"What?" said Vivian. "How?"

"39th century morphic technology has a few tiny little loopholes," the Doctor explained, sonicing another section. "Only loopholes if you have the correct genetic code, of course — no duplication errors, to eliminate the threat of Dalek Replicants and clones — but using a genetic imprint from someone with the correct qualifications, who was also an incredible genius, you could infiltrate the system of every single ship in the fleet, and unlocking the controls universally."

A dialogue box popped up in the air, reporting, "Error. Morphic locking security protocols permanently offline. Unable to reengage. Override 900 in effect."

The Doctor stepped back. "As I thought."

Buffy turned on the Doctor. "Okay, you said this definitely wouldn't happen."

"It definitely shouldn't have!" the Doctor insisted. "Both sides are so pigheaded about their own superiority, and so suspicious of one another, they should never have done anything like this!"

"What are you talking about?" Ashley demanded.

"If Adam's people are the ones hijacking your ships," said Buffy, "and the Daleks are the ones in formation to attack once you're all cubed in together, then that means the Daleks and Adam have joined forces."

"But... Daleks don't make deals with inferior species," said Vivian. "And to them everyone's inferior. They'd never do something like this."

"Adam would," said Buffy. She glanced over at the Doctor. "He did it in Sunnydale, with all the vampires and demons, remember? If there's one person that can unify two seemingly incompatible sides, it's Adam."

"Yes, yes, remembered that," the Doctor said. "But his appeal is mainly done through emotional manipulation, which wouldn't work on Daleks." He turned to Vivian. "And Daleks _do_ ally themselves with others, for a short time, to gain the upper hand, before destroying those allies once and for all. But they'd never strengthen someone they thought might become a threat, afterwards." He gritted his teeth in frustration, and tugged at his hair. "It shouldn't have happened! Adam and the Daleks couldn't possibly have become allies!"

"Unless Adam agreed to give me over to the Daleks, in exchange for you," Buffy pointed out. "Then both sides get their objective, and everyone wins. Except us, of course."

"But the Daleks don't want Adam to have me!" the Doctor exclaimed. "They know that the moment Adam gains me, he'd gain the ability to travel through time — and they'd never risk that. The only reason they'd allow that to happen is if they'd already been desperate enough to..." The Doctor trailed off.

Then he grinned.

"Uh, oh," said Buffy. "You've got your insane-Doctor-plan look on, again."

The Doctor dove for the control panel, punching buttons and buzzing a few things with his sonic. A dialogue box popped up in the air, revealing a white-domed Dalek and Adam.

"Well, now," said the Doctor, stepping back and addressing the display window. "There's two races I never thought I'd see working together."

"WE HAVE FORMED AN ALLIANCE!" the Dalek Supreme informed the Doctor. "ADAM IS AN ALLY OF THE DALEKS!"

"Perhaps you have forgotten, Doctor," said Adam, "but if there's one thing I can do, it's unify."

"And then stab your allies in the back," Buffy pointed out. "Or don't the Daleks know that?"

"INCORRECT!" said the Dalek Supreme. "THE ALLIANCE WILL STRENGTHEN THE DALEKS. ADAM'S SUPPORT WILL REMAIN CONSTANT."

Ashley stared at the screen, a little perplexed. The others around her seemed equally confused.

"So, what's the bargain?" the Doctor asked them. "Adam gets me, the Daleks get Elizabeth? Both of you wipe out IPSA, at which point your alliance barrels through the universe virtually unopposed, exterminating all other races until there's no one left but the two of you? Is that it?"

"In times of war, strategy must be maintained," said Adam. "The fall of one society ushers in a new age. The destruction of—"

"IPSA WILL HAND OVER THE DOCTOR AND THE SLAYER KNOWN AS BUFFY," said the Dalek Supreme, "OR YOUR FORCES WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"You can't blow up the IPSA fleet," said Buffy. "If you blow us all up, you'll kill me and the Doctor, and you want us alive!"

"My troops are already ripping through your fleet," Adam informed them. "The Daleks are assisting us. We face no opposition. It is slaughter. Destruction." He grinned. "Annihilation."

"IPSA'S FLEET WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" the Dalek Supreme agreed.

"But, as I've discovered, there are more of you Slayers," said Adam. "Many more, in the Korjensky Star System. Following the battle, I will reanimate your corpses, create my own army of Slayers. Two million of the finest fighting forces, now on my side, working to destroy those they once considered friends." His smile grew. "Mother's dream will not die, Doctor. It will live on in the future. In the stars."

"The Daleks are allying themselves with someone that says something like, 'mother's dream will not die'?" Jordan cried. "That doesn't even make sense!"

"INCORRECT," said the Dalek Supreme. "IT IS LOGICAL. THE DALEKS WILL GAIN THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE."

"This is the same 'Mother' you skewered, right?" Buffy asked Adam. "Just checking."

"Of course," said Adam, who seemed rather proud of the action.

The Doctor cleared his throat, to gain back everyone's attention. Then he rocked on his heels, a calm, collected air about him.

"Tell you what," the Doctor said to the Dalek Supreme and Adam. "Because I'm nice, and I'm feeling generous, today, I'll make you a counter-offer. The Daleks need a brain clever enough to destroy the universe. Adam needs a Time Lord body to operate the TARDIS. Which means that neither of you actually need Elizabeth at all. The only one you really need..." stepping forwards, "...is me."

"What?" cried Buffy. "Oh, no, you don't!" She tried to run to the Doctor, but the nearby Slayers held her back.

"STATEMENT IS INCORRECT!" said the Dalek Supreme.

"Statement is _too_ correct!" the Doctor replied. "My brain's just as clever as Elizabeth's, and has 900 times as many years of experience. The Daleks don't need my body, Adam doesn't need my brain — well, except for the symbiotic link, but, at a guess, you're planning to cut that out and staple it into your own body, right?"

"That is the plan," Adam conceded.

"So! Here's the deal," said the Doctor. "New, modified, shining deal!" He gave them a hard stare. "Let IPSA go free, let Elizabeth go free, and I'll give myself over to you. Voluntarily."

Vivian stared at the Doctor. "Doctor, are you really sure you want to—?"

The Doctor snapped his head over to her, his eyes boring into hers. "Trust me," he said, in a low, calm voice. "This is something I have to do."

Vivian hesitated, but seeing the confidence and certainty in his eyes, nodded.

Buffy just struggled a little harder. "I swear, if you think you're going to—"

"DEAL NOT ACCEPTED!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "PROBABILITY THAT THIS IS A TRICK TOO HIGH."

"That is a possibility," Adam mused, "but, then again, I've seen him do this sort of thing before. He will always offer himself in return for letting others go free."

"Check your databanks, Dalek Supreme," the Doctor told him, with a wave, pacing in front of the screen. "The Doctor will do anything to protect his companions. Elizabeth's my companion. I'm protecting her." He stopped, and looked up at the Dalek Supreme. "Standard procedure."

"You're serious?" Jordan asked. "You've thought over all the implications, and—"

"I've chosen," the Doctor agreed. He gave Jordan a long, sad stare. "It's the only way."

"He'll trick you!" Buffy shouted at the Daleks and Adam. "You're right. His brain's no good! You need me, too! Otherwise—"

She was cut off, as Jordan covered Buffy's mouth with her hand. The Doctor gave Jordan a look of thanks, and then turned back to the screen.

"THE DOCTOR'S BRAIN IS UNACCEPTABLE," shouted the Dalek Supreme. "IPSA WILL HAND OVER THE SLAYER KNOWN AS BUFFY, OR THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Unacceptable?" the Doctor cried. "I beat you during the Time War, didn't I? Foiled you over and over again throughout the centuries. Every single time I turn up, you lose." He stepped closer to the screen, and fixed his eyes on the Dalek Supreme. "Don't you want to know how I did it?"

The Dalek Supreme said nothing for a few seconds. Then, "DEAL ACCEPTED."

Buffy, in a fit of anger, kicked back at the Slayers restraining her, slamming Jordan against the wall and ramming Ashley in the stomach with her elbow. She flipped out of Freddy's reach and then ran to the Doctor. "Doctor, you can't—"

"Elizabeth," the Doctor said, placing his hands on her shoulders, staring into her eyes. "You have a future. A destiny."

"Yeah, I do, and right now, that future involves kicking your ass for having a stupid martyr complex!" she shouted. "If you think for one second I'm just going to let you—"

"Elizabeth," the Doctor said, once more, just as calmly as before. "Please. I have to do this." He flicked his eyes over to the screen, then back to Buffy. "If they destroy you, the future will change. In a very, very bad way."

Buffy said nothing.

"Remember what I told you," said the Doctor, patting her shoulder, fondly. "You have all the answers you need. You just need to know where to find them." He leaned in a little closer. "Make the right choice, and live up to your reputation."

Buffy just stared at him, trying to keep tears out of her eyes. She could already feel hands pulling her back away from the Doctor — hands that were trying to protect her, hands that were trying to make sure the Daleks didn't skewer her brain. She just kept staring into the Doctor's sad green eyes, watching him give himself up so she could live.

The Doctor turned back to the screen. "I'll teleport myself onto your ship the moment you withdraw from IPSA's fleet."

"You and one other," Adam stipulated. "A hostage. To guarantee your good behavior."

Buffy leapt out, trying to volunteer, but she was dragged back.

"Some innocent bystander you can exterminate once you're done with me?" the Doctor asked. "That wasn't part of the deal."

"I'll do it," said Ashley, stepping forwards.

"Ashley, you don't have to give up your life for—" the Doctor began.

"For Bunfy Sompters to live, you mean?" asked Ashley. "Yeah, I'll give up my life for that. And, you know what? It's an honor to die fighting alongside one of her friends."

The Doctor met Ashley's eyes with his own, and for a moment, neither spoke. Then the Doctor sighed, and seemed to give in.

He turned to Vivian. "Scan the outer ships for any nonhuman genetic material. Make sure you can see whether or not they're retreating."

Vivian did as she was told. "Retreat in effect," she told the Doctor. "Full evacuation in one minute."

The Doctor turned back to Buffy, strolling over to her with that same sadness in his eyes, a resignation in his every step that made Buffy feel like... this was it. This was the end for him. He stopped, just in front of her, their eyes locking.

"I'm not Bunfy Sompters," she whispered to him. "I'm not the hero with all the answers. I'm not worth saving."

"I told you last time we met the Daleks," said the Doctor. "You always are." He glanced over at the others surrounding her. "And so are they. The human race. Your future, your legacy. If you believe in them, if you give them the chance, they will show you just how amazing they are."

Buffy swallowed, not trusting herself to answer.

The Doctor gave her a smile, and a pat on the shoulder. Then he turned to the others surrounding Buffy. "She'll try to make a run for the teleport at the last possible moment. Don't let her follow me. Or leave this space ship. You understand?"

They all nodded.

"I'm trusting you," the Doctor said. He waved a finger at them, a stern expression on his face. " _No_ following. No matter what."

"We won't let her," Jordan promised.

The Doctor nodded, then fixed his eyes on Buffy. "Goodbye, Elizabeth. Remember what I told you."

He turned, and walked back to the front of the bridge.

Buffy struggled to get free, but she couldn't. They'd tightened their hold on her, and Wendy even hissed into her ear that if they had to sedate her, they would. But they weren't about to let her go kill herself.

"Full evacuation achieved," Vivian reported. "Adam's armies have retreated back to the Dalek fleet."

"Good," said the Doctor. "Time we got going, then." He glanced over at Ashley, who stepped beside him. He gave her one last questioning look, and she smiled at him, her stance determined to fight, her eyes shining with bravery. It was an exchanged that spoke of their bravery and determination, and also a sort of hopelessness that made Buffy's heart sink.

Then the Doctor flicked his sonic screwdriver over at the control panel. And paused. His eyes falling on Buffy.

"One more thing." He reached into his pocket, then tossed something at Vivian, his green eyes twinkling. "Make sure Elizabeth gets this. Very important."

Vivian caught it, staring at the object confusedly — a prepackaged slice of cheese.

Then the Doctor turned on his sonic, and in a flash, he and Ashley were gone.

Buffy made a last minute maneuver, trying to get away from the people restraining her and rush for the teleport, but they managed to hold onto her long enough that the Doctor was gone long before she managed to run over to where he was standing. She just stood in the place where the Doctor had disappeared, not sure what to do.

In the meantime, Vivian punched a series of buttons, shouting at Jordan and Laura to get over there, pursuit mode in effect. She slammed her fist down on a green button, Jordan and Laura waiting, expectantly.

Then, over the loudspeaker, a female voice with an English accent reported, "Teleportation systems disabled."

Buffy shot Vivian a death glare.

"That wasn't me!" Vivian protested. She began smacking controls, frantically. "I don't know how to undo it!"

Buffy looked back at the screen where the Dalek Supreme and Adam were standing. It now displayed the Doctor and Ashley shimmering onto the bridge of the Dalek ship, surrounded by Daleks and Adam-lookalikes on all sides. The Doctor was quickly secured and his sonic confiscated. Ashley, beside him, tried to fight back and free them both, ducking and dodging and flipping through Dalek laser beams, but she was taken down and secured by Adam's army in under a minute.

Then the screen display popped off.

Vivian's hands left the controls, a sort of horrified hopelessness lingering on her face.

"Sstatuss report," Freddy commanded.

Vivian snapped back to attention, calling up the information she needed with a rapid sort of officiousness. "Fifty percent of IPSA's fleet either destroyed or disabled," she reported, a stream of data floating through the air. "Dalek battleships have stood down, all weaponry offline."

"Then we retreat to the outer perimeter of the Galactic Federation," Marya said, as she entered the bridge. "I'll put in a call for backup from Korjensky. We'll have a chance to regroup and reorganize, so that the next time we face the Daleks, we can do some real, permanent damage."

"Agreed," Freddy decided.

"You're not... going to rescue the Doctor?" Buffy asked the Slayers around her.

"He bought us time," said Marya. "We must use that time to strike back in full force." She hesitated, as she noticed the look on Buffy's face. She tried to give Buffy a kind smile. "I'm very sorry, Miss Sompters… I mean, Summers. But even if we wanted to, we'd never be able to get to Ashley and the Doctor in time to save their lives."

"It's true," Vivian confessed. "I've checked."

Buffy stood there a moment longer, just glaring at all of them, feeling every ounce of hurt and pain and rage flow through her.

"I know... he was your friend," Trista said. "And it's natural to be upset. But... this is a good death. Not many others in this conflict can say they've had the same."

"He gave his life for you," Wendy added. "That means something."

"The Doctor was certainly heroic through and through," Marya agreed. "And when I send my report back to Korjensky, I'll make sure that is how he is remembered. I promise, we'll strike back and avenge his death."

"Hiss ssacrifice will not be in vain," Freddy assured Buffy. "Nor Asshley'ss."

Buffy said nothing.

Jordan hesitated, then stretched out a hand, placing it on Buffy's shoulder. "You okay?"

Buffy batted the hand away with a flash of anger and aggression that burned through her, brighter than a supernova. She looked between all the Slayers on the bridge of the ship, her eyes narrow. Then, without a word, she stalked off.

"Wait!" Jordan called after her, rushing forwards.

Buffy stopped, just outside the door, her hand resting on the frame. She didn't even look at them, just glared at the floor.

"You let the Doctor kill himself," she said, her voice low, dark, and dangerous. "I'm never going to forget that."

Then her hand dropped from the doorway, and she disappeared into the interior of the ship.


	31. Chapter 31

Laura found Buffy curled up in one of the cargo bays, hugging her knees to her chest, her face buried in her lap.

"Buffy?"

Buffy looked up, but her eyes weren't swollen red from tears. They were just hurt, angry, destructive. When the eyes landed on Laura, the anger fell just a hair.

"You actually got my name right," she muttered. "On the first try." Then she buried her face again. "I still haven't forgiven you."

Laura nodded. She hesitated, then took a step closer to Buffy. "He was a hero. We won't forget him."

"He's not just a hero!" Buffy snapped. "He's the Doctor! He's..." She glared at the floor directly in front of her, her whole body shaking with suppressed anger, sorrow, and pain. "I knew you'd do this. You Slayer guys. You're just so totally happy to throw his life away, if it means saving mine. Like I'm better than him or something."

Laura faltered. "That's... not exactly... what we..."

"Just shut up and go away!" Buffy shouted. She squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't deal with this right now."

Laura fidgeted, but didn't leave.

Buffy rested her chin on her knees, letting the pain flow through her body, letting it rise in the air like steam from her skin.

"He was so proud of you," she whispered. "The Slayer, what it had become. He did that... thing he always does, where he looks past the mistakes and just sees all the good stuff people can do. He wanted me to believe in you, the way he believed in you." She sighed, her eyelids drifting open with a great strain. "He's just so... amazing. So much more than I could ever be. And you..."

"He was very brave," said Laura. "To the end. He gave up his life so we could survive." She faltered. "Or... so _you_ could survive, I guess."

Buffy's lower lip trembled, her eyes still hard and bitter. "And you just let him."

"We didn't—"

"My friends, back home, hated the Doctor for a long time," said Buffy, "because every time that I screwed up, every time I made a mistake, the Doctor took the blame. Those demons with the duct-billed noses, the Hellion of Cribbner, and... even the Trio of Hell! I messed up — _me_! Buffy Summers! The exact same completely perfect, infallible legend you all worship — and the Doctor blamed himself. Made everyone hate him, so they wouldn't have to hate me." She wrapped her arms around her knees even tighter. "The thing that gets me is that... my friends all let him do it. They let him be the martyr, the scapegoat. Just like you did."

Laura looked away, unable to meet Buffy's eyes.

"After that whole thing at the Initiative," said Buffy, "I... had trouble sleeping. I'd stay awake, in bed, thinking — how far would they go? These people I consider friends? Riley and Xander and Willow and Giles and... all of them. To keep me alive, to keep me safe from whatever monsters are out there, what sacrifices would they make? Riley — he'd lock the Doctor up somewhere and let him get tortured for all eternity. Giles would be willing to seal the Doctor away in Hell. And... as for the others...I don't even know what they'd do."

Laura didn't answer.

"I mean, if I was poisoned with some magic whatever thing," said Buffy, "and the only way to revive me was to slice the Doctor open and harvest his regenerations — would they do it? Or if I was... already dead, and killing the Doctor was the only way they'd get me back — would they kill him? To get me — or even just some weird part-evil revived zombie version of me back — how far would they go?" She stared at her feet, not saying anything for a second. "I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question."

"You think they would?"

Buffy gave an entirely mirthless laugh. "Why not? You Slayer guys would."

Laura swept a loose lock of hair behind her ears. "You've got devoted friends," she said. "Friends that would do anything for you. I guess I just think... that's important. I mean, if it was Jordan or Freddy or Wendy in danger, about to die, I'd give my life to save them."

"Your life's yours to give," said Buffy. "This is... giving up someone else's life to save someone you care about."

"But that's not what happened, just now!" Laura said. " _We_ didn't sacrifice the Doctor for you. He decided to do it himself. Voluntarily." She gave a small shrug. "Devoted friends, like I said."

"He died, and you let him," Buffy repeated. She shook her head. "The Doctor was wrong. I can't trust the human race. I mean, I can't trust my friends with the Doctor's life, I can't trust you guys with the Doctor's life — there's no one left out there to trust."

"We were just doing what the Doctor asked us to," Laura insisted. "The Doctor trusted us to hold you back, to keep you safe and protect you. He trusted us, and we did what he said. Ashley even tried to defend him." Laura shuffled, awkwardly. "I guess I just think... the Doctor gave his life for you. Maybe you should trust him to know what he was doing."

Buffy shook her head. "It should have been me."

"You've got a future," said Laura. "A destiny. Like he said. You have to go back in time and make that future happen."

Buffy gave a dry laugh. "Yeah, and how am I supposed to do that? I mean, you guys don't even have time travel! The Doctor just left me here without a way... to go... back... to..."

Buffy stopped, suddenly, then looked up at Laura, her entire expression shifting from anger, rage, and pain into one of intense thought. Then her eyes widened, her face lit up, and she jumped to her feet, hugging Laura tightly.

At first, Laura thought she was sobbing, but... no. That was laughter.

"I'm such an idiot!" Buffy gasped through her laughter. "A total and complete idiot! Believe in you, he said. Remember what he told me! And I forgot!"

"I don't..." Laura started, but Buffy had already pulled out of the hug, grabbed Laura by the arm, and dragged her out of the cargo bay, back towards the bridge of the ship.

"The Doctor said to remember what he told me," said Buffy, "and — way, way back — he told me to always be careful about Daleks not acting like Daleks. And right now, the Daleks aren't acting like Daleks! All of you guys knew that! The Daleks and Adam are using each other to get what they both want!"

"Well, yeah," said Laura. "But now they have what they want."

"No, they don't!" said Buffy. "They've got the one weak spot in their alliance. The Doctor."

Buffy ran into the bridge, and everyone spun around to face her. They all seemed a little surprised to find that Buffy was smiling, and had lost all her gloominess and her anger.

"Answers," said Buffy to the people there. "You've got answers, I've got questions. Together, that makes a strategy. So everyone get together, because it's strategizing time."

"Bunf—Buffy," sighed Marya. "We're sorry, but in all likelihood, the Doctor's already dead. The Daleks have already gotten everything they wanted."

"Then why haven't the Daleks attacked you guys, yet?" Buffy asked. "Why are we still alive?"

Everyone looked at everyone else.

"The Daleks took down their weapons systems to let you retreat," said Buffy. "That can only mean one thing. They're not planning to use those weapons systems to get rid of you. They're planning something else. Something worse. Something Julie worked out, something the Doctor's worked out, and something the Doctor's gone onto their ship to sabotage."

"The Dalekss would not have allowed ssuch a thing to happen," said Freddy. "The Doctor and Asshley have been desstroyed. There iss no hope."

"The Doctor sacrificed himself to save you," Trista told Buffy. "You should accept—"

"He didn't!" Buffy insisted. "Just... think about it! The Doctor was right — the Daleks _don't_ want Adam to have time travel. Because the moment Adam got his hands on the Doctor, the Daleks would be wiped out. But Adam doesn't want the Daleks to have the Doctor's brain, either! For the same reason! The Doctor's placed himself in this position on purpose! If the Daleks and Adam actually follow through with their alliance, they'll wipe each other out. Which means both sides have their primary objective in sight, both sides can foresee their own destruction, and that's made both sides desperate. They'll pull out all their top-secret weapons and plans, and the Doctor can sabotage them!"

"You think the Doctor handed himself over because he had a plan?" asked Vivian.

"I think the Doctor wanted _me_ to create the plan," said Buffy. "A plan that involved rescuing him from Adam and the Daleks. A plan that involved wiping out both sets of armies at once."

Everyone on the bridge looked at one another, perplexed. "How?" they asked, at once.

"Using IPSA," said Buffy.

_If you believe in them, if you give them the chance, they'll show you how amazing they are._

"We've just lost fifty percent of our army!" Marya insisted. "If we go in, now, we'll get massacred."

"Officer Marya iss correct," Freddy rasped. "Attacking in thiss sstate would be ssuicide. We musst sseek reinforcementss."

"In the future, I've got some great reputation as a military strategist," Buffy explained. "And… you're right. I come up with really great plans. Plans that actually work. But I don't do it alone. I've got a team helping me, giving me answers and support. Friends I trust. Friends I rely on." She took a step closer, and gave them all a solemn stare. "I can make sure you win this war once and for all. But you have to trust me. And I have to trust you."

Everyone on the bridge just blinked at her, as if the last words she'd spoken didn't make any sense.

"Win… the war?" Wendy ventured. "Like… the whole war?"

"Yes," said Buffy.

"Not just this little battle," Wendy clarified. "But… the whole… hundred and fifty year long…?"

"Yes."

"We… never even thought… that was possible…" Trista breathed.

"We cannot fight back the Daleks _and_ Adam's army at the same time, with only 50% of our force operational!" Marya insisted. "It simply won't work."

The Slayers all looked at each other, uneasily. They all shrunk back, seeming to lose confidence as Marya spoke.

Then Freddy stepped forwards. "I believe in my Sslayerss," he informed Marya. "And I believe in Ssompterss. If we can ssave Asshley and Ssompterss' friend, we musst. It iss honorable."

"They're two groups of undefeatable bio-mechanoids!" Marya said. "We've been fighting against the Daleks for a hundred and fifty years, without winning. And we haven't the faintest idea how to harm Adam's army."

"You know, Bun— I mean Buffy — did mention to us that she'd defeated Adam before," Jordan put in. "Maybe we could do the same thing again."

Buffy cringed. She was guessing magic wouldn't work too well here in outer space, where there was no planetary morphic field to bounce the energy off of.

"How'd you do it?" Laura asked Buffy.

"My friends and I did a spell that summoned all the Slayers together," said Buffy, "across all of time and space. Then I pulled the uranium power core out of Adam's chest, and he went all kersplat."

Vivian tilted her head to the side, reflecting, as she fidgeted with the cheese packet.

"Well, we've already done half of it," Trista told them. "All the Slayers are together. I mean, not all, but about a million of them. All here, ready to fight."

"No uranium power core, this time, I'm guessing," said Wendy.

"The Doctor said it was some nanoform things," said Buffy.

Vivian frowned. Her entire body bending with sudden thought, sudden inspiration, as she twisted the cheese packet between her fingers. "Cheese…" she muttered beneath her breath.

Buffy spun around to Vivian. "What?"

Vivian straightened beneath Buffy's gaze. "No, nothing… it's just…" Vivian paused, glancing down at the cheese packet, then gave an uneasy laugh. "This is sort of a weird idea, but… Adam's army… they don't eat, right?"

"No," Buffy agreed. "No eating, no sleeping, no disintegration rays. I've gone up against them with Slayer hand-to-hand combat skills, and they won't go down with that, either."

"Where are you going with this?" Marya demanded of Vivian.

"Well, Adam's army is comprised of bio-mechanoids," Vivian explained. "The biological part is still necessary to their functionality. And if they're all being powered by those fusion nanoforms, and they haven't eaten any anti-radiation food since they started being dead and cellular decay began setting in in their bodies… well, the radiation levels in their bodies would be incredibly high…"

Buffy barely stopped her jaw from dropping open. Anti-radiation cheese! The Cheese Man, who kept randomly showing up in her and her friends' dreams! But… no, only showing up in their dreams _after_ Buffy had removed Adam's uranium power core!

Oh, jeeze, Buffy really _did_ have all the answers she needed.

(If there was an aardvark involved somewhere in this mess, Buffy probably would not be able to stop herself from Frenching the Doctor the next time she saw him — Riley or no.)

"…and the high radiation levels in their bodies would make their atomic structure net positive," Jordan continued, her eyes lighting up, "and that kind of ionization would be completely destabilized by the Quantum Fluctuator technology we stole from the Daleks, earlier this year! If we could inject them with a concentrated round from that, it'd cause rapidly accelerated cellular decay!"

"Exactly!" said Vivian.

"And what would that do?" asked Buffy.

"Well, for one, it would mean that if you kicked them, it'd actually do something," Jordan explained. "They'd be far more vulnerable to normal blows. We could fight hand-to-hand, and win."

Wendy laughed. "I _never_ thought I'd use that stupid hand-to-hand combat training!"

"The only problem," said Jordan, crossing her arms, "is that in order to create that kind of high-intensity atomic destabilization, we'd need the Fluctuator blast to be entirely focalized. The best way to do that would be to literally shoot it into their bodies, creating a constant state of flux throughout every nanoform simultaneously."

"Hey, yeah!" said Vivian. "That could work!" She paused. "Except… the only guns with that kind of intensity are…" She slumped back in her chair. "Oh."

"Are what?" asked Buffy.

"The Dalek Busters," said Jordan. "To fight Adam, we'd become completely defenseless against the Daleks."

"Then the plan fails," said Marya. "I'm not about to send our Slayers into battle simply so we can become the Daleks' target practice!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" said Buffy, brushing aside their concerns. "I'll work something out!" She paused, thinking furiously. "Daleks. How are they constructed? Like, not the mechanical shell and stuff, but… beneath that."

"Dalekss are ssquid-like creaturess," Freddy informed Buffy, "in metallic ssuits. They all sshare identical DNA."

"Genetically cloned from one another," Trista agreed. "And… pretty creepy looking."

"The shielding in those metallic suits is way beyond anything even Korjensky could come up with, though," said Jordan. "You try to aim a normal energy ray at them, and it just bounces off the shell."

"Korjensky has devoted all of our scientific efforts into designing weapons that can get past the Daleks' armor," Marya informed Buffy. "Until the Daleks can come up with a way to counteract them, the Dalek Busters are currently our best method of destroying the Daleks."

"And if we're using that Fluctuator in the Dalek Busters," said Wendy, "then one shot of the unaltered Busters — without the Fluctuator — will basically be enough to restore any of these Adam guys to full power."

"Yeah, the Dalek-Busters are definitely out," said Vivian. "That's for sure."

"The thing about Daleks," said Marya, "is that they're constantly adapting their metal casing and other technology to defend against new threats. We come up with a gun that can kill the Daleks, and next thing we know, the Daleks have made it so they can withstand that kind of energy shot. We come up with a way to sabotage their machinery, and they find a way to close that loophole. In any battle against Daleks, it's always a matter of trusting your instincts, thinking on your toes, and constantly computing the amount of time it'll take for the Daleks to counteract what you've just done."

Buffy remembered. The last time they'd been on the Dalek ship, Jordan and Laura were always discussing how many minutes or seconds before the Daleks got around whatever clever thing the Doctor had done. Okay, then. So fighting Daleks was like… fighting off a coven of vampires who couldn't be staked while, at the same time, trying to stop demons from opening the Hellmouth.

Buffy could do that.

"The Daleks always overcome any technology we throw at them," Jordan agreed. "We've just got really smart people back on Korjensky, constantly working to be one step ahead."

"It iss a tesstament to the sstrength of the Sslayer that the Dalekss have been held off for 150 yearss," Freddy explained to Buffy.

"Yeah, yeah, I got that whole super-praise thing from the Doctor, thanks," said Buffy. "What I want to know is, if these Daleks are totally indestructible except using super-energy weapons, then why's _Adam_ able to kill them?"

Everyone looked at everyone else. They all frowned in thought, suddenly realizing that Buffy was bringing up a very good point.

"Maybe Adam's upgraded himself," Vivian volunteered. "To incorporate a Dalek gun into his body so—"

"Adam didn't wake up this morning thinking he'd be fighting Daleks," said Buffy. "He thought he'd be fighting Earth people. And as far as I can tell, his major strategy against Earth people is sticking to the machine gun, because your energy-repelling armor stuff doesn't protect you against bullets."

"Wait, wait," said Wendy. "Adam's got a… projectile weapon?"

Buffy glanced around at the others. With the exception of Jordan, who had already encountered projectile weapons first-hand, they all seemed completely floored by the idea.

"No one's been able to figure out how to create a projectile weapon since the electromagnetic storm of 3269," Jordan explained to Buffy. "That technology's been completely lost to us."

"If Adam'ss army hass projectile weaponss," Freddy rasped, "their shotss musst have penetrated the eyesstalk."

"The eyestalk's the weakest point," Vivian agreed. "It connects directly with the Dalek creature inside. If a bullet went all the way down the eyestalk, on exactly the right trajectory, it'd obliterate the creature."

"Which doesn't help us at all," muttered Wendy. "We don't even know how to make projectile weapons anymore. That electromagnetic storm wiped all the records."

"Buffy does," said Laura.

Everyone turned to face Laura, who stood in the doorway to the bridge, Buffy's crossbow in her hands. She raised it up for all of them to see, as if this was the one most important item in the world.

_You have all the answers you need._

That crossbow. The one that kept randomly popping up, every time Buffy lost it. The one that Laura and Jordan had been so reluctant to part with, back on the Dalek ship. A projectile weapon!

The Slayers all swarmed around Laura, trying to get a closer look at it, trying to get their minds around how it worked. And it was so… bizarre that they'd lose the kind of knowledge needed to make something as simple as a crossbow! Humans could travel through space in a little translucent bubble! They could kill Daleks and destroy Adams and speak enough science to actually understand what the Doctor was saying most of the time. But… with no more vampires around… Slayers _didn't_ need to build crossbows, anymore.

Except now.

Buffy stared at the crossbow, her mind a whirl of ideas. "That eyestalk," she said, swinging around to face Vivian. "How wide do you think it is?"

"Maybe… half an inch in diameter?" Vivian guessed.

"Perfectly straight, though?" Buffy added. "Straight as an arrow?"

"Straight as… an armor plate from Nuxinhalt," said Vivian, with a shrug.

Which… Buffy was hoping… meant yes. Half an inch. It'd be hard to fire a half-an-inch bolt that accurately at a Dalek's eyestalk, but if they could….

"The Korjensky scientists have thought of that!" Marya cut in. "And rejected the idea! The Daleks will be able to counteract something like a crossbow easily."

"The Daleks will be fighting against both us _and_ Adam's army," Buffy replied. "Adam's army has the machine guns and the soldiers that aren't killed by extermination beams. Our army has crossbows, and armor that doesn't work against extermination beams. I'm guessing the Daleks will be way more obsessed with figuring out how to take down Adam than figuring out how to take down us. We're the lower threat, so we can slip under their radar. Finish them off."

The Slayers all looked at one another. A spark of hope appearing in their faces.

"This… might actually work," said Jordan.

"One thing." Buffy looked around at the Slayers nearby. "Half an inch diameter, and it's got to go down at exactly the right angle. That's a really tricky shot."

"Not for a Korjensky graduate it isn't," said Trista, pride in her voice.

Buffy looked at the others. "You all think you can do it?"

They all nodded their agreement.

Buffy gave them a curt nod back. "Okay, then," she said. "I think it's time we started building crossbows."


	32. Chapter 32

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

The first thing Amy and Rory heard was the buzz of the sonic screwdriver. Which was... impossible. Had the Doctor come back from the 39th century, already? Swooping in here to save them?

Then came the sound of the metal bars being lifted back into the ceiling of the cave network. The grating of metal and gears and cogs clattering nearby.

And the sudden flickering on of lights, embedded within the walls of the cave surrounding them.

"Right," came a chirpy English voice that Rory didn't recognize. "Where were we? Oh, yes! You responded to my sonic screwdriver signal, then just flew off without exterminating me. Which I found a wee bit odd."

Rory and Amy ventured a peek over the crates, to find a skinny man in a brown pinstripe suit and trainers, carrying a blue-tipped sonic screwdriver and grinning at the Dalek, as if the situation highly amused him.

"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR!" shouted the Dalek.

"Yeah, worked that one out, thanks," Rory muttered under his breath.

"Yes, I am," said the Doctor to the Dalek. "Number one enemy. So why are you ignoring me, and running off down here to exterminate rats and rodents? Or... can I guess?" His eyes shifted around the cave. "Somewhere down here are my future companions, and you're trying to exterminate them, because you've already finished future-me off somewhere else in time and space." He glanced back at the Dalek. "Which is why I'd have sent them here. To make sure you didn't kill them, too."

That was when a very violent shaking began underfoot.

"ALERT! ALERT!" the Dalek shouted. "RIFT ENERGY INCREASING!"

"Oh, sorry, did you forget where we are?" the Doctor asked. "Rift in time and space? Because I didn't. And I built this." He took a device out of his pocket. "Gathers up rift energy and focuses it into a metallic receptacle of my choosing. And... well... too much rift energy, all at once? That could kill even a Dalek."

The Doctor yanked something on the device, and the Dalek shrieked, as the ground shook once again, and rocks began to fall from the ceiling.

"EXTERMINATE!" the Dalek screamed, spinning around through the air and firing its gun at random.

"If you two are still about, whoever you are," the Doctor called out, over the Dalek and the roar of the trembling earth, "Run!" Then he pointed his sonic at the ceiling, and buzzed it.

Rory and Amy scrambled to their feet and frantically backed up, as the entire cave ceiling collapsed between themselves and the Doctor, pouring on top of the Dalek, who gave a faint but pathetic, "EXTERMIN..." before it made a garbled, strangled sound, and was buried beneath the soil.

Amy and Rory ran back out of the way of the cave-in, desperately trying to avoid being squished, and when the last tremors finally stopped rippling through the ground, they leaned against one another, catching their breaths.

Amy took a step forwards, staring at the wall that now separated them from the younger Doctor.

"Doctor?" Amy asked. Then, not hearing an answer, shouted, "Doctor!"

Still, no answer from the other side of the cave-in.

"Um, Amy," said Rory, tugging her back towards the fork in the cave network. "I think... we should keep running."

Amy spun around, and looked where Rory was staring. There, just emerging in the distance, was a group of Initiative soldiers, led by a gun-wielding Riley Finn.

"Okay," Amy said. "Time to play our favorite game, again."

Keep Well-Armed Riley Finn Away From the Doctor.

"He's behind a huge caved-in dirt barrier," said Rory, as he began to run, with Amy, through the cave network. "Riley can't possibly get to him."

"Then let's keep it that way!" insisted Amy, as she burst forwards.

... ... ...

The Doctor walked off, hands in his pinstripe pockets. He never liked thinking about his future too much. And he really hated speculating about what could have caused this particular incident to occur.

"Hell," the Doctor repeated to himself. "A _very_ apt description."

A Dalek. His companions in trouble. And being forced to face his own mortality.

Three things that were the Doctor's personal hell.

The Doctor sighed, and decided to put all of that aside. Not good to look too closely into your own future. Time to get back to Buffy. Brilliant, wonderful Buffy, who kept making up monsters to get him to stay. Who had, very obviously, not read the section in Giles' books that explained how to actually summon the Trio of Hell.

And the Doctor knew exactly what would happen when Buffy's friends realized who could do that.

The Doctor emerged out of the cave tunnel and into a dense group of trees. Buffy was clever, but when faced with something like this — separated from her friends, unable to seek help from those she trusted most — well, needless to say, Buffy would be in trouble. She'd be confused and uncertain, freaking out, looking for someone to save her. And so, the Doctor had to.

Just the way he always had. Just the way he always would.

He trudged off towards Giles' house.


	33. Chapter 33

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

"All right, then! Who gets to slice me up first?" the Doctor asked, restrained by Adam-lookalikes. "Who gets first pick at the main course? Adam, or the Daleks?"

"SILENCE!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "SILENCE!"

"It was agreed that I would be first," said Adam. "To channel the symbiotic link and connect to your—"

"Oh, Adam, Adam, Adam," sighed the Doctor. "Of course you'd be first. Because you've been played. I said it before, and I'll say it again. 1800 years, and you're still making the same mistakes!"

"It's interesting," said Adam, "that you keep insisting I don't have the upper hand. That you keep fighting, even after you've already surrendered—"

"That Genetic Disintegrator you built," the Doctor said to the Dalek Supreme, "it wasn't the only one, was it? You didn't really care about the temporal team you sent to collect the Fountain of Kulkmattoll, but you _did_ care about the Fountain itself. You wanted the blueprints. You wanted to see how it worked, so you could recreate it. Build a copy. One which would power the Genetic Disintegrator copy you built on this ship."

"ADAM WILL BEGIN DESTRUCTION OF THE DOCTOR!" the Dalek Supreme commanded.

"See how defensive they are?" the Doctor asked Adam. "You'd think they had something to hide."

"THE DOCTOR WILL CEASE TALKING!" shrieked the Dalek Supreme. "OR THE HUMANOID FEMALE WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Adam frowned, looking between the Dalek Supreme and the Doctor. "Genetic Disintegrator," he repeated, as his electronic mind began to work it all out.

The Dalek Supreme swiveled around to Adam. "YOU WILL BEGIN YOUR DISSECTION OF THE DOCTOR!" he shouted. "YOU WILL BEGIN!"

"They didn't care how far you went with me back in the Initiative, Adam," said the Doctor. "How much of an advantage you had. Because they never wanted to even out the sides! They wanted me here, overwhelmed by opposition and helpless to intervene, while they snatched up Elizabeth's brain. That was all! If you won, if I won, none of that mattered! Because the moment they were done with Elizabeth, they were planning to switch on the Genetic Disintegrator, and disintegrate every single life form nearby. Me. IPSA. And your entire army."

"If they had that sort of technology at hand," said Adam, "they'd have used it already."

"They couldn't, because Elizabeth arrived too early!" the Doctor told him. "The Genetic Disintegrator would have disintegrated her, as well — and they wanted her alive!"

"SILENCE!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "SILENCE! OR THE HUMANOID FEMALE WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

Adam pondered over everything that he'd just learned. "I'm beginning to believe," he said, at last, "that the Doctor might be right."

"Your alliance is built on nothing but an elaborate web of manipulation and deceit," said the Doctor. "You've been playing them, Adam, and they've been playing you. After all, the Daleks would never really allow you to get time travel. The moment you have that technology, you'd stab them in the back, and they know it. They're prepared." He turned to the Dalek Supreme. "Am I right, Dalek Supreme?"

The Dalek Supreme turned back to the Doctor, swiveling his eyestalk around to glare directly at the restrained Time Lord. For a moment, the only sound was the heavy thump of Dalek machinery, echoing through the cavernous space ship interior.

"CORRECT," the Dalek Supreme said, at last.

A sudden rumble echoed through the Dalek ship, and Adam's eyes scanned the surrounding area, his bio-mechanical mind analyzing the possibilities.

"INITIATING FULL GENETIC DISINTEGRATION!" shouted the Dalek Supreme.

"I thought you said they couldn't do that!" Ashley whispered at the Doctor.

"Yes, well, now they can," said the Doctor, grimacing as he glanced around himself. "My brain instead of Elizabeth's, see. Must have programmed the Genetic Disintegrator to eliminate all genetic structure except Dalek and Time Lord."

"THAT IS CORRECT!" the Dalek Supreme said. "FULL DISINTEGRATION IN 10 RELS!"

"Except it's not going to work," the Doctor continued, addressing the Dalek Supreme. "Because, see, what you weren't banking on is that maybe, just maybe, the Dalek brain isn't as superior as you think."

The rumble cut off, abruptly.

"ERROR!" shrieked a Dalek nearby. "SYSTEM FAILING!"

Adam took this all in with a mild sort of interest.

"The one thing that Adam's army has that yours does not, Dalek Supreme, is curiosity," said the Doctor. "Which means some other member of Adam's army has already spotted the Genetic Disintegrator, snooped around to try to work out what it was, and then sabotaged it."

Adam grinned. He spun around to face the Dalek Supreme. "Advantage, me. Which means that now, I think, it's time you died." He lunged forwards towards the Dalek.

"ACTIVATE FORCE SHIELDING!" shouted the Dalek Supreme.

Adam reached out to seize the Dalek, but was suddenly slammed away by a barrier that had just sprung up around the Dalek Supreme's white casing.

"But, on the other hand," the Doctor continued, "the Daleks are more technologically advanced than you are, Adam."

"You're loving this, aren't you?" Ashley asked.

The Doctor beamed. "Gotta love what you do!"

"EXTERMINATE!" shouted the Daleks nearby, firing upon Adam. But Adam just absorbed the energy, and got to his feet, looking refreshed and revitalized.

He strode over to the Dalek Supreme, once more. The Dalek Supreme edged back a little, this time.

"Interesting," said Adam, his eyes glinting as he analyzed the force shield. "A barrier made from isolating the exact resonance patterns of subatomic gluons, combined with a series of rapidly firing chronon particles across the surface." He grinned and turned to the other members of his army in the room. "You know what that means."

They dropped into position, their appendages morphing into guns and energy blasters and various other bits of machinery, and began to fire upon the Daleks.

Some of the Daleks began to shriek, before exploding, their eyestalks pierced by bullets.

The Daleks opened fire on Adam's army with a chorus of, "EXTERMINATE!" The energy blasts rattled through the Adam-lookalikes, and while they were being revitalized by its beams, a sudden fwumping sound reverberated across the ship.

The Doctor looked over at Ashley, and Ashley took the hint.

She used the distraction to knock the Adam-look-alike restraining her back, then flip the one restraining the Doctor over her shoulder, crashing into the first one, who'd gotten to his feet and had been lunging for her.

"Thank you!" said the Doctor, retrieving his sonic screwdriver from the monster that had just been knocked to the floor.

Ashley, in the meantime, retrieved her gun.

The Doctor glanced up at the ceiling, where an array of different devices had dropped down — atomic agitators, it looked like. Better get out of there before those devices turned on.

"Time to run, I think!" said the Doctor to Ashley.

They spun around and fled through the door.

"ALERT!" shouted the Dalek Supreme. "ALERT! THE DOCTOR IS ESCAPING!"

"Good thing you won't be alive to need him," said Adam, advancing once more on the Dalek Supreme.

The Doctor paused for a second, curious to see what Adam would do next, but Ashley grabbed him by his collar and dragged him out of the room and down the corridor.

"Less sight-seeing, more trying not to get killed!" Ashley told him, as he regained his footing.

They both stampeded through the Dalek ship full force, twisting around corridors and down the black passageways, trying to avoid the fighting forces in a way very reminiscent of the Doctor's previous escape.

Except this time, the Doctor had a goal in mind.

"Where are we going?" Ashley called to him. "Or are we just running for the heck of it?"

"Genetic Disintegrator!" the Doctor called back, zipping around a corner, and then checking a reading on his sonic.

"Why?" asked Ashley. "Are we going to disintegrate them?"

"Disintegrate them?" cried the Doctor. "Of course we're not going to disintegrate them! We're going to blow the machine up!"

"But we could use it to our advantage!" said Ashley. "We could re-program it, so it only killed—"

"No, we couldn't!" the Doctor told Ashley. "Trust me, you try that one again, and they'll be expecting it, this time. We're far better off destroying it."

He careened into a room, then stopped as he discovered two Daleks inside.

"ALERT!" they shrieked. "ALERT! IT IS THE DOCTOR!"

But they didn't have any time to go on, because Ashley barged in and shot the one on the right, flipping out of the way of the extermination beam of the other and blasting it while she was still in midair. She grinned at the Doctor, and stuck her gun back in its holster.

"Can I just say that I thoroughly disapprove," the Doctor told her, with a wink. Then he slammed the door shut with his sonic, and locked it. "Right, then! Genetic Disintegrator and Fountain Copy!" He paced around the two large machines, and whistled. "Oh, you beauties! Look at you!"

Ashley raised an eyebrow at him, and crossed her arms.

"Not that I'm approving of this sort of thing, either," the Doctor told her. He took out his sonic, took a reading, and checked. "As I thought. Adam's army must have programmed the Genetic Disintegrator to only disintegrate Dalek DNA. Exactly as you or I would have done in this situation."

"Then why didn't it?" asked Ashley.

The Doctor glanced over at Ashley, past his sonic. "Because I thought of it, first," he said, sounding a little affronted at the implication that he might not be a genius. "Calibration test. Told you." He jumped out from behind the machines, and began buzzing at the nearby control panel.

Ashley thought this over for a moment, then gave a small shrug. "And you really think the Daleks won't have anticipated you breaking the Genetic Disintegrator?"

"Of course they did anticipated my breaking it," said the Doctor. "Just not in the way I'm doing now." He took the sonic and buzzed it against the wires, once more.

Ashley spent a few minutes just watching him break the machine, in silence. Or... not silence, exactly, considering the chaos and commotion outside. But near silence.

"You're... really special to Bunfy, aren't you?" Ashley asked.

"Partially," said the Doctor, continuing to fiddle. "Well, no, not partially. Not even remotely, really. Just... someone who pops into her life from time to time."

Ashley frowned. "She was... so, so upset that you'd sacrifice yourself for her. Like the thought of you dying just... tore her apart." She stared off into the distance, thinking about it.

"Well, she does look up to me, a little," said the Doctor. "Same as you Slayers look up to her. She only acts towards me the way any of you would act towards her."

Ashley laughed at this. "Yeah, believe it or not, Doctor, we Slayers might be super inspired by Bunfy, but we aren't exactly fighting off impulses to give her serious make-out sessions."

"That's probably because you haven't tried snogging her, yet," the Doctor muttered, only half-listening as he adjusted a tricky bit of wiring.

Ashley cleared her throat. "The way Bunfy does with you, I mean," she clarified, in a pointed way.

The Doctor's fingers slipped, and an electric shock jolted through him. He shook out his hand. "We're not... She and I are complicated," he replied, trying once more to fiddle with the wiring. "It's... not exactly... like that." He gave a small smile. "Not yet."

Ashley's jaw dropped open. "Oh, my God! You mean... in her future, you two...?"

The smile fell off the Doctor's face, and he turned his full attention back to the machine.

Ashley leaned back against the computer controls, taking this all in. "Sorry, it's not that I don't think she likes you," she said. "It's just... well, I've seen the docu-dramas, I've read the epic poems, I've heard the songs, and even flipped through the novelizations of Bunfy Sompters' life. But before this encounter, I'd never even heard of you."

"Never heard of me? Of course you've heard of me!" said the Doctor, flipping a switch to the side, twice, and checking the output reading.

"Nope," said Ashley. "There's Zanda and Willnoe and Guywalls and Dawn. But not one mention of an alien Doctor with two hearts. Anywhere."

"You've read your Slayer Constitution, haven't you?" the Doctor asked. He stuck the sonic in between his teeth, and adjusted a few wires by hand. Then took the sonic back out. "I'm in there."

Ashley gave him a dubious stare. "What, really?"

"First amendment," the Doctor told her.

"The one that says we should always treat doctors with the greatest admiration and respect, and give them the liberty and protection they rightly deserve?"

"In the original document," the Doctor explained, "it's not 'doctors'. But 'the Doctor.'" He glanced over at her, and grinned. "Was quite good friends with your second president. And, come to think of it, your first…" He faltered, his grin dripping off his face, as he remembered the altered timeline. He fixed his eyes back on his work.

Ashley stared at him, for a long while. Examining his face. "It's funny," she said, carefully. "Before we found Bunfy's gravestone, in Somelydaya, we'd always thought that Bunfy Sompters had actually founded the Slayer Institution, herself. Personally."

"One person, making the right choice, can inspire generations upon generations to do the same," the Doctor told Ashley. "Even if she isn't alive to make things happen herself. Remember that."

"She died in 2001," said Ashley. "Just… 20 years old. And even that young, she was amazing enough to inspire all this."

"She is remarkable, isn't she?" the Doctor asked.

"Saved the world. A lot," said Ashley. "That's what the gravestone says." She paused, her eyes fixed on the ground. "How did she die? Do you know?"

"Saving the entire infinity of existence," said the Doctor. "Saving her sister."

"She told me she didn't have a sister," Ashley pointed out.

"Not yet," the Doctor replied.

For a while, there was silence between them. The Doctor continuing to work, Ashley trying to absorb all that had happened.

"Bunfy Sompters," she said, at last, in a soft voice. "She told us she was from 2000."

The Doctor didn't answer.

"Next year," Ashley continued, "she dies."

Yet again, the Doctor said nothing.

"I kept thinking I should… warn her," said Ashley. "Tell her something to make her appreciate—"

"Did you?" the Doctor interrupted, glancing up at her.

Ashley shook her head.

The Doctor turned back to his work, a look of mild relief on his face. "Good," he said. He soniced the device. "No one else should have to know when they're going to die."

The date he could never erase from his mind. The one he'd learned back in World War II, facing a homicidal Melody Pond. The one that he could still see, in his mind's eye.

The Doctor brushed the thought away, then popped one more circuit into place and leapt to his feet.

"How fast can you run?" the Doctor asked Ashley, running over and grabbing her by the wrist, practically dragging her off the computer banks.

"Slayer-fast," said Ashley. "Why?"

"Because we've got about two minutes before this contraption blows sky high," the Doctor told her, as they raced out the door. "And I don't want to be anywhere near it!"

"Two minutes?" Ashley yelled. "You're insane!"

"Have to destroy it before the Daleks work out a way to counteract what I've just done," said the Doctor, zipping around a corner. "Which would probably take them about two minutes to work out."

They darted and jumped and dodged as they continued to run through the ship, the Doctor sonicing a number of things along the way until the hiss of a pressurized sealing mechanism engaging spread through the air. About two seconds later, the blast from the exploding Fountain and Genetic Disintegrator shook the entire ship.

The Doctor toppled over, taking Ashley down with him. She dragged herself back up, again, helping the Doctor to his feet.

"You've got a death wish, or something," said Ashley. "Where to, now?"

"Teleporters, I'd say," said the Doctor. "Very nasty time technology on board this ship, and we should probably make sure Adam doesn't get to it." He grinned at her. "Come along!"


	34. Chapter 34

The Doctor had done his work well, Buffy thought. But so had she. The trick with the eyestalk worked like a charm, when they could get the aim right — which wasn't often, seeing as hitting a Dalek down its eyestalk needed way more precision than hitting a vampire in its heart. But considering her background in staking vampires, and the other Slayers' backgrounds in fighting Daleks, they were all doing pretty well.

(Besides, Adam had gotten most of them.)

The annoying thing about the Daleks was that, when they were almost beaten, they kept shouting, "EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT!" and disappearing. Which sucked. Buffy had seen the white Dalek — the Dalek Supreme — do it, too, right before she'd hit him in the eyestalk.

But at least the Daleks were gone from this time zone, anyways.

And as for the Adam army — well, the Daleks had destroyed most of them, too. But as for those left over, the Quantum whatever thing that had been shoved inside the Slayers' guns seemed to be doing pretty good cellular decay stuff. Buffy didn't know what any of that really meant, but she knew that after the Adam-lookalikes got shot by the Slayers' guns, she could beat them up. Slayer style.

Which was awesome.

And these Slayers had hand-to-hand fighting skills that Buffy had never seen before. Ever.

"Freddy taught me that one," said Wendy, after she'd just done a flying flip-kick-double-handed-shoot combination that managed to dislodge one of the creatures' heads. "Except I think the Ice Lords do it with swords, not guns and crossbows."

Their style was a mixture of every Earth fighting style that Buffy had ever seen, combined with a whole bunch of alien stuff that was fairly impressive.

As for the nonhumans — Buffy had been kind of shocked to find Freddy was way more dexterous and adept in hand-to-hand than a big lumbering reptile should be. And there were a number of other nonhumans from other ships in the fleet, who were getting the best of the Adam-look-alike army.

Then the Carflodashians from the fleet came swooping in, and it was pretty obvious that IPSA was going to win.

Buffy, herself, had gone strictly with the crossbow. She didn't know how to use the Slayers' guns, and decided to just stick to what she was good at. Besides, with a whole army of girls who'd never seen a projectile weapon before, they needed help on the crossbow front.

And… funny enough... Buffy still had the original crossbow she'd brought from the 21st century.

"Elizabeth!"

Buffy swung around, and there, at the other end of the room, were the Doctor and Ashley. She dodged, darted, and flipped through the room to get to them, her relief at seeing the Doctor still alive and well flooding her entire body.

She made to grab him into a hug, but the Doctor caught her hand, instead, and tugged her after them, as he and Ashley began running forwards once more.

"No time!" said the Doctor. "Now that you're here, we've got to get back to the temporal teleporter and destroy it for good, before Adam works out how to use the technology."

They wound up in front of the door to a large, vaulted metal room that Buffy recognized from earlier. They were about to step inside, when Adam himself came lumbering forwards, looking far more decayed but still going strong.

Adam blocked their path with his enormous frame.

"Well, you're looking a bit shabby," said the Doctor. "Almost as if you'd been buried in the ground for the last 1800 years."

"You use humor to mask your fear," said Adam, although his voice was now far more electronic sounding. "An interesting, yet ultimately flawed philosophy. I have no fear."

"Or need for a haircut," said Buffy, pointing at his decayed head, where his hair had almost completely fallen out. "I like the bald, partially decayed look on you. Very attractive."

Adam thrust his arm forwards to grab for Buffy's neck, but the Doctor threw himself onto Buffy and pushed her out of the way, the two of them tumbling onto the floor.

Ashley pulled up her Dalek-Buster gun.

"Don't!" Buffy warned, but it was too late.

Ashley had already pulled the trigger.

The blast surged into Adam, rippling across his body and renewing him, revitalizing his decaying form, giving him strength. Buffy watched, in horror, as all the decay began to go away, all signs of weakness left him, and he stood up, straight and tall, just as he'd been before.

"Quantum Fluctuator inside the gun barrel," the Doctor muttered. "Now reversed."

Adam met Ashley's eyes. "Thank you for that," he said, and his arm morphed into a machine gun barrel.

The Doctor leapt up in front of Ashley. "No, wait!" he shouted. He put up his hands. "We surrender!"

Adam looked at him in vague amusement. "What makes you think I have any need for you, anymore, Doctor?" he asked. "I no longer require your TARDIS. The Daleks' time technology is already here, already accessible. I could take it and do everything I've ever wanted."

"I know you need me," said the Doctor, "because you haven't killed me, yet."

Adam considered, then collapsed the machine gun back into his arm. "You might be useful."

"Of course I would," the Doctor said. "Because you've realized, by now, that Ashley and I already sabotaged the Daleks' time technology, before we picked up Elizabeth. You need me, because you want me to fix it."

"Amongst other things," Adam admitted.

"Then I fully and completely surrender," said the Doctor, "on the one condition that you let my friends live, as well." He gave Adam a dark and angry stare. "Harm either of them, and you forfeit my help."

Adam took a few seconds to think the matter over, then grinned. "Very well, then." He grabbed Buffy by the arm, and dragged her towards him. His other arm turned back into the machine gun, and Adam pointed it at Buffy's head. "She is your insurance."

Ashley looked about ready to punch someone, but the Doctor held her back, handing Ashley Buffy's dropped crossbow, instead.

Adam turned and opened the door to the temporal teleporter, dragging Buffy inside. Buffy struggled, tried to flip him over her shoulder, but… darn it, that Dalek-Buster that Ashley had used had way too much power, and Adam had, apparently, wound up making himself stronger and more resilient than any member of his army.

"If you don't stop struggling," Adam told her, in an unemotional voice, "I will kill the amber-haired one."

"Elizabeth," the Doctor said, as he and Ashley emerged into the room. His voice soft, gentle, drifting through the air. "Remember."

And she did.

_If you believe in them, if you give them the chance, they will show you just how amazing they are._

Buffy stopped struggling. And as Adam sealed them inside the temporal teleporter room, Buffy looked out at the Doctor and Ashley, and realized — she had to trust Ashley. An IPSA member. One of the girls who'd turned the Doctor over to Adam, back when Buffy had been a captive on Adam's ship. One of the girls who'd throw his life away in a second if it meant preserving Buffy's own.

But Ashley was still a human being. One that could choose to make the right choice.

So Buffy had to believe in her.

Because Adam was wary of Buffy — she'd be under constant guard the whole time. And as for the Doctor — Adam wasn't about to take any chances. But Ashley was an unknown. Flying below the radar. She was the only one of them who could do anything.

Ashley could take the opportunity to make the wrong choice. She could throw the Doctor at Adam, then activate the teleporter and drag Buffy back at the last second. She could save Buffy and destroy the Doctor in so many ways.

Or… Ashley could make the right choice, and save them all.

Buffy swallowed.

And believed.


	35. Chapter 35

Adam placed his machine gun hand right next to Buffy's head. "First," said Adam, "you. Girl. Put down the weapon."

Ashley reluctantly set down the crossbow in a corner of the room, and stepped away from it.

"Not that a wooden crossbow would do her much good against you," said the Doctor. "Or do you just enjoy speaking to us from a position of power? The only gun in the room!"

"Doctor," said Adam, ignoring the Doctor's jibe, "you will fix the temporal teleporter, then set the controls to send me to wherever you've sent your TARDIS. After all, the Dalek's technology is nothing compared to yours."

"And I suppose you'll just be standing there, the entire time, overseeing my every action," said the Doctor, with a sigh, "threatening to kill Elizabeth if I make one wrong move?"

"Exactly," said Adam. "And in case you were planning to send me to some uninhabited world with no chance of escape…" Adam grinned. "I'm planning on taking you with me."

The Doctor laughed. "You don't know me all that well, do you? Because I'd be more than happy to strand myself on a deserted planet forever, so long as it puts you out of action."

"And I'm taking her along, too," Adam said, nodding at Buffy. "If we arrive somewhere that doesn't please me, I will kill her."

Ashley made to strike out at Adam, but the Doctor held out his hand in front of her. His eyes didn't shift from Adam's.

"I've warned you," the Doctor said, very calmly but with a biting, dark edge, "not to make me angry, Adam."

"I'm only ensuring that I get what I want," said Adam. "You follow our agreement, and your Slayer remains alive."

The Doctor continued looking at Adam a moment longer, his eyes dark and stormy.

Then he spun around to the terminal controlling the temporal teleporter, and started tinkering with it. Pressing buttons and pulling levers and fiddling with panels. Then crouching down beneath the underside of the device to fiddle with the wiring.

As he popped back to his feet to test out a number of switches, Ashley leaned in towards him.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" she hissed.

The Doctor glanced up at her, pausing in his work. "I have to," he said, staring into her eyes. He rested his hand on an exposed panel of wiring on the top of the console, his fingers fiddling with a red loop of wire. "Adam's won, Ashley. He's defeated us." He looked down, pointedly, at the red wire, then at a green button beside it. "There's nothing we can do, now, except go along with it." He stared back into her eyes, purpose written in his irises.

Ashley blinked at him twice in a row, to show she understood, then stepped backwards. "You betrayed us."

"I'm have to," said the Doctor, returning to messing with the controls and equipment. "I'm sorry. But I can't let her die. I just… can't."

He flipped a final switch, and the machine powered up into life, the light beam appearing, once more, in the center of the room.

"And the coordinates," said Adam.

The Doctor paused, just a second, then began to type.

"Doctor, wait!" said Buffy.

The Doctor stopped, and glanced back at her.

"Adam, he's got this thing — he can tell the probability of whether stuff's going to happen in the future or not," said Buffy. "If you type in the wrong coordinates, he'll know."

The Doctor glanced at Ashley, who's entire face had fallen, whose eyes were black and bitter and full of desolation. Then glanced back at Buffy. His eyes mirroring the expressions in Ashley's. He turned back to the coordinate panel, and deleted his entry.

Then paused.

He stood there, for several long minutes, his fingers hovering just above the coordinate panel, his entire body frozen with indecision.

"I _will_ kill her," Adam reminded the Doctor, clutching Buffy a little tighter.

The Doctor's shoulders slumped.

"Doctor," said Buffy, her voice very soft and gentle. "It's okay. I… get it, now." She looked over at Ashley, and gave her a wide, confident smile. A smile that shone with trust and hope and pride.

Ashley caught the smile, and straightened to attention. As if it were all she needed to revitalize her. As if it were all she needed to renew her hope.

Adam, emotionless as always, free from hope or inspiration or feeling, did not catch the nonverbal communication. Just issued a warning, "Doctor…"

The Doctor sagged a little more, in defeat, as he typed in the correct coordinates, then turned back to face Adam.

Adam's mismatched eyes were now twinkling, his entire face filled with anticipation and glee.

"And for a moment," said Adam, "I thought you would be stupid, and try to trick me."

"You've won, Adam," said the Doctor. "Even Ashley knows that."

Ashley just gave Adam a death glare, but said nothing.

Adam dragged Buffy into the middle of the light beam, and smiled at the Doctor. "Come," said Adam. "Step beside me, and we will swarm across the universe." His eyes gleamed in anticipation. "You and I, Doctor. Together. We have a destiny to fulfill."

"Slaughtering the cosmos," the Doctor said, his voice flat, hopeless.

"And it shall be beautiful!" said Adam.

Buffy raised her eyebrows at the comment, but said nothing. She offered no struggle or resistance.

The Doctor stepped onto the teleport pad beside Buffy and Adam, his gaze fixed straight ahead, as the machine whirred into life. The energy began to surge around them, artron filling the air, and a loud clicking sound joined the whir.

That was when Ashley darted forwards, in a leap faster than any of them could process, tore the red wire from its circuits and slammed her fist down on the green button.

The clicking and whirring sounds transformed, in an instant, into a low fwooshing noise, and Adam dropped Buffy, abruptly. His body jerked and spasmed, a faint glow rippling along his skin, and then… everything cut out.

The light from the teleporter vanished, the noise of the machinery stopped, and the temporal teleporter control panel dropped into some power-saving mode.

Buffy, finally free, whirled around and struck out at Adam, kicking him back with her foot. She was expecting him to strike back at her, or raise his gun arm up to shoot her, but he just let her kick him, and then looked at her, clearly confused. His gun arm retracted, and he jumped at the motion, surprised.

Adam twitched his arms, then his legs, and then moved forwards, jerkily. He didn't speak, but his eyes shifted around the room in obvious bewilderment.

He kept walking forwards until he ran smack into the far wall of the room, making him stumble back. He blinked. Then he stepped forwards and hit it again. And again. And again.

"Okay," said Buffy, turning to the Doctor. "I give up. What'd you do?"

The Doctor, instead of answering her, bolted forwards, shouting, "Someone squash that fly!"

There was, in fact, a small little fly buzzing towards the controls to the teleporter. The Doctor lunged for it, but it darted out of his hands at the last second. Ashley reached out and squashed it beneath her fist.

The Doctor bent down to analyze the squished fly on the control panel.

"Dead!" he proclaimed. "Dead, gone, and never, ever coming back!" He looked up, and grinned at Ashley. "Ashley Cralmodath. You've just destroyed Adam and saved the universe. Thank you!"

Buffy looked back at the Adam body, still hitting itself against the wall, and now making an annoyed buzzing sound with his mouth. Then looked at the squished bug.

"That bug… was Adam?" Buffy asked.

"In a nutshell, yes," said the Doctor. "Or… in a fly-shell. In a nut's fly — or possibly in a fly's nut."

Buffy cleared her throat, to interrupt him.

"Delta Wave Transfer tool!" the Doctor told her. "Daleks built it into their teleporter. Remember?"

"You mean the brain-swapper?" Buffy asked.

"Exactly that!" the Doctor said, pointing at her with a grin. "Which mean, all I had to do was set the machine to switch Adam's psychic matrix with that of a fruit fly that had smuggled itself aboard from the IPSA fleet, and…" He gave a flourish with his sonic screwdriver. "Voila! Universe saved!"

Buffy frowned. "But… Adam's brain isn't just in his head. That's why cutting off the head doesn't work. It's kind of… scattered throughout his whole body, like a computerized…" She drifted off, as she realized. "Oh."

The Doctor patted the teleportation console. "Mechanical _and_ biological sentience swapper," he reminded her. "Bio-mechanoid? Piece of cake!"

Buffy just stared at the dead fruit fly that was Adam. Craziest thing was, this meant that… she'd metaphorically squished Adam like a bug last time, with that Slayer spell. And this time… Ashley had done it literally.

So much for Adam being the Supreme Being!

"That was splendid thinking on your part!" said the Doctor to Ashley, bouncing over to her. "Convincing yourself that you weren't going to do what I asked, so the probabilities would line up and Adam wouldn't get suspicious, then diving for it at the last minute."

"I was worried for a second, when Bunfy said that Adam could tell probabilities," said Ashley. "But when Bunfy… you know… I guess I just decided to follow my instincts." She shrugged. "I've always kind of been a little more… aware of time-type stuff than all my classmates back at Korjensky. When I was a kid, I cursed it, but I guess this time, it was pretty useful."

"Adam's gone, now?" Buffy asked the Doctor. "Like, really gone?"

"Really gone!" the Doctor agreed, with a little bounce in his step.

"No more resurrecting and stuff?" Buffy double-checked.

The Doctor pointed at the Adam-body, still thudding itself against the wall, making weird noises. "If that body's ever resurrected again, it'll just say buzz buzz and try to ruin people's picnics," said the Doctor. "The intelligence that's Adam is gone. And that was the dangerous part."

"You… know what this means," said Ashley. She stared at the completely brainless Adam. "We… won. I mean… we actually won."

The Doctor clapped Ashley on the back. "Well, of course we did!" he said. "You didn't think I was just going to let you die, did you?"

Ashley shook her head. "No, no, you don't understand," she said. "Not we as in us three. We as in… _we_. IPSA. We _beat_ the Daleks."

"You say that as if it's surprising!" the Doctor said.

"I've been training my whole life to fight Daleks," said Ashley. "This was an ongoing struggle. A perpetual war we could never hope to win! Our fight against the forces of darkness! We Slayers, we were trained for this, grew up with this, spent all our lives protecting the universe from a threat we could never hope to actually get rid of. I always assumed… we'd be doing it forever." She gestured at Buffy and the Doctor. "But now you two show up, and… poof! Like magic, the Daleks are gone! We won! And now..." She stared into the distance, at nothing.

"Now you don't have Daleks anymore," said Buffy.

"What are we supposed to do?" asked Ashley. "It's just… how the universe works! The birds fly, the fish swim, and the Slayers fight Daleks." She looked at Buffy, a hint of fear in her eyes. "What's our purpose, now that they're gone? What are we supposed to do, next?"

Buffy stifled a laugh. She could just imagine what Giles would say if she told him that Slayers of the future thought their sole purpose was to fight Daleks.

"Now you begin living!" the Doctor told Ashley. "You've cleared away the darkness, and you can start looking for the light! It's a beautiful universe, out there, Ashley. Go enjoy it!"

Ashley frowned, not sure if she was entirely satisfied with this answer.

"If I were you," said Buffy, "I'd go back and start rebuilding the Earth. Since you guys funded that dig that reanimated Adam and almost completely destroyed it. But then again, I'm not some all-knowing Time Lordy guy."

"Ah, yes, actually," the Doctor said, drifting back over to Buffy, "what she said. Far better idea. Fix up the Earth, repair all the damage. And _then,_ go out to see the universe!" He beamed, and reached into his pocket, pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "As for us two, we'd better be off. Plenty for us still to do."

"Wait, now?" Buffy asked him. "But… I thought we'd at least stick around until the end of the battle."

"Well, I would," said the Doctor, "only some of the Slayers seemed rather eager to get their hands on time travel technology, so they could use it to go back in time and start massive, devastating wars. So… better leave and destroy all this before it becomes an issue." He glanced over at Ashley. "You able to do that?"

"Destroy it?" Ashley nodded. "Definitely."

"Splendid!" the Doctor said. He buzzed the sonic at the computer banks, and they flickered, then lit up a little brighter. "Just have to program the temporal teleporter for a long transition and a short hop." He dove beneath the control panel. "Won't be a moment!"

Buffy glanced over at the Doctor, busy by the controls, then took the opportunity to go over to Ashley, who had gone over to pick up the abandoned crossbow on the other side of the room. Ashley straightened the moment Buffy approached.

"I guess… since I'm not going to see anyone else from IPSA again, just… tell them thanks," Buffy told Ashley. "For giving me something to believe in."

Ashley's eyes widened, slightly. She opened her mouth, as if to speak, but words eluded her.

"And thanks to you, too," said Buffy, offering a hand for Ashley to shake. "For making me proud to call myself a Slayer."

Ashley's entire body transformed into one of sudden excitement and reverence, as she took Buffy's hand, and shook it. Her eyes were sparkling, her arm trembling a little, and her face was filled with awe and happiness.

_ This _ _is the human race._

"Thank _you_ ," Ashley whispered to Buffy. "For… everything. Just… everything. And I'll never forget what you said. About some things being more important than monsters."

"Not things," said Buffy. "People." She squeezed Ashley's hand a little tighter. "Humanity. Because it's always worth saving."

Ashley glanced down at their hands, then back at Buffy. Then she smiled.

"Bunfy Sompters," she said. "You're amazing."

"Yes, she is, isn't she?" said the Doctor, as he skipped back towards them, the computer banks flashing once more. "But we'd better be off." He swung an arm around Buffy's shoulders, and Buffy barely had time to snatch back her crossbow before the Doctor led her towards the column of light in the center of the room. "Sunnydale, August… 14th, if I recall correctly. Yes, definitely 14th. 1999."

"No, Doctor, that's not when I came…" Buffy paused. "Wait a second. That's last summer."

"Yes, it is!" said the Doctor, with a grin, as they arrived in the light column. "Funny thing, actually. Remember the Trio of Hell?"

Buffy nodded.

"Turns out," said the Doctor, buzzing the computer banks with his sonic, "I really _did_ release them!"

Buffy felt the air hum around her, and the world began to lurch. The Doctor clung onto her shoulders, and she felt a little better.

"And it's about time," he continued, "we picked them up."

* * *

Sunnydale, August 14, 1999

The Doctor and Buffy re-appeared in a room that Buffy remembered far too well. From a time that hadn't happened, yet. A room filled with monitors and computers, a room buried underground.

The central monitoring station in the Initiative.

For some reason, it was empty, which Buffy found a little weird.

"Don't worry, someone will come running soon enough," said the Doctor, rushing over to one of the computer terminals and typing so fast it was any wonder his fingers didn't fall off. "Just need to add a bit of information…" He buzzed the sonic against the computer for a few seconds. "…make sure they know how to use the Dalek I'm leaving them to make Adam absorb that kind of energy blast…" Then the Doctor resumed typing. "…and, finally, erase all history of us two ever appearing in this room or tampering with their equipment…"

He glanced up, as the clomp of footsteps approached the area where they were situated. The Doctor banged against the 'Enter' key, and hopped backwards, throwing an arm across Buffy's shoulders.

"Short hop!" he said, flashing the sonic in the air, and the air and surrounding area lurched, as Buffy reappeared…

Up top. On her college campus. Before it was her college campus. She and the Doctor were standing right beside the TARDIS, and the Doctor beamed.

"You know, reprogramming the Initiative's computers is a lot easier before the Daleks began locking their security codes!" the Doctor told Buffy, reaching into his pocket and bringing out the TARDIS key. "With simple encryptions like that, it's any wonder the Initiative didn't have prisoners escaping all the time!"

Buffy said nothing, fidgeting with the string of her crossbow.

The Doctor twisted the key into the lock, and opened the TARDIS door, ushering Buffy inside.

"Come on, come on!" said the Doctor, practically pushing her through the double-doors. "We don't have all day! They'll be here any second!"

"Who'll be—?" Buffy started, as she entered the TARDIS, but she never finished.

Because at that exact moment, Buffy was knocked over by a breathless Amy and Rory. The impact sent the three of them sprawling across the floor of the TARDIS, Buffy's crossbow skittering across the glass paneling.

"The Trio of Hell, of course," the Doctor said, stepping over them, shutting the doors, and then leaping towards the central console. "Or Duo of Hell, I should say. Seeing as we're leaving one of them behind."

"Doctor," Amy panted, getting to her hands and knees. "Don't you dare — _dare_ — ever leave us stuck, again, by ourselves, in a time and place with… with…"

"A Dalek?" the Doctor asked, dematerializing the TARDIS. "Don't mention it."

"…with that nutcase Riley Finn!" Amy shouted. "He's been chasing us for the last two hours, and we've been doing everything possible to keep him away from past-you in the…" She stopped, as she suddenly realized that Buffy was around, and winced. "Sorry. Your boyfriend's great. He's just… very..."

Amy glanced over at Rory.

"Fast," Amy said, as Rory said, "Well armed."

"But definitely great!" Amy added, trying to hide a cringe.

"The Frankensteinian monster, the madwoman trying to kill us, and the constant need to not get seen by the younger Doctor might have also contributed to the chaos a bit," Rory muttered, as he managed to disentangle himself from the others and get up.

Buffy's jaw dropped open, as she put all the pieces together.

"You guys and the Dalek! The Trio of Hell!" she cried, doing a back-flip so she wound up on her feet, again. She laughed, then rushed over to hug Amy and Rory. "Okay, you know what? Daleks and Adams aside, this trip's actually been pretty cool."

"My trips are always cool," the Doctor informed Buffy. He tapped his finger against the TARDIS central console. "Although… it would have been cooler if we'd run into an aardvark. Who was a Slayer." He paused, then smiled. "Wearing a bow tie."

"Aardvark Slayers with bow ties," Buffy noted. "Great. I'll tell the Watchers Council to get right on that for you, Doctor." She glanced back at Amy and Rory, and winked. "And while I'm headed back home, you guys so need to explain to me what _really_ happened in 1999!"


	36. Epilogue

Sunnydale, May 26, 2000

"And that's why Amy and Rory were running around in your past," Buffy concluded. "So that the Doctor and I could save the galaxy. And maybe the universe."

Riley didn't answer for a very long moment. He just sat there, hands on his knees, staring at the ground in front of him. "I don't remember any of this," he told her, at last.

"Yeah, the Doctor said Walsh probably used some memory alterer on you," said Buffy. "But, trust me, that's what really happened!"

"Yes. I… see," Riley said.

"Yeah," said Buffy. "Saving stuff. Yay!"

"What you're saying," Riley continued, still not looking at her, "is that the Doctor created Adam."

Buffy blinked. "Wait, what?"

"The Doctor went back in time," said Riley, "and made sure that Adam was smart enough, lethal enough, and built well enough that he'd be able to stop these Daleks in the future."

"Um, actually, I think the Doctor just made sure Adam couldn't get killed by Dalek weapons," Buffy said. "The other stuff I'm pretty sure was Professor Walsh being all crazy scientist lady."

"Which means," Riley cut in, "that everything that happened at the Initiative, all the people that died because of Adam — even that little kid that got torn apart when Adam first escaped — that was all because of the Doctor."

Buffy shook her head. "Riley, you're missing the point. Adam needed to be immune to Dalek firepower, otherwise the Daleks would have just killed Adam and then gone on to destroy the Galactic Federation."

"If the Doctor hadn't made Adam invincible," Riley growled, his hands clenching around his knees, "maybe the Initiative could have taken Adam ourselves, and he wouldn't have needed to _be_ in the 39th century."

Buffy gave a little laugh. "No, no, you're getting your causality all mixed up," she explained. "Adam's always been and will always be in the 39th century. We couldn't change that on this end, because at this end, we were just seeing the effects of what was happening in the future. Even if Adam had been killed earlier, they'd still have dug him up, again, in the 39th century. That part was fixed in time. What we _could_ do, though, was go back even further in time and make sure that Adam and the Daleks' armies would be able to wipe each other out."

Riley glared at the ground. "The Doctor killed everyone in the Initiative."

"No, Professor Walsh killed everyone in the Initiative, by creating… oh, never mind," Buffy sighed.

She should have known this wouldn't work. Her and Riley's relationship was already falling apart as is. Any time she brought up the Doctor, it just added extra strain on what was already breaking.

She changed the topic.

* * *

The TARDIS, the Time Vortex

The Doctor hopped around the central console, trying to look busy to disguise the fact that he had absolutely no idea where to take River, right now. She was expecting something that was a human-conventional date. What did humans do on dates, anyways?

"Nice crossbow," said River.

The Doctor spun around, and noticed River, in her evening dress, examining a crossbow the Doctor hadn't noticed was there.

"Must be Elizabeth's," the Doctor said. "I suppose she left it here." Which was worrying, considering that had taken place at least fifty years ago, for him. Why hadn't he noticed a crossbow in his TARDIS for fifty years?

River picked it up, and measured out the sights on it.

"I know!" the Doctor cried, spinning back to the central console. "Vampire hunt! That's a very conventional dating custom in this galaxy! After all, as a friend of mine has assured me, every good date must end in a full-blown, no-hands-barred, vampire-slaying free for all!" He pulled the dematerialization lever. "And who am I to argue?"

* * *

Sunnydale, August 22, 1999

Down in the Initiative, Professor Walsh surveyed the damage done to Adam. She had been furious about it, before. But now…

She flicked her eyes over to the metal casing her team had dug out of the tunnels. The creature inside was worthless — completely fried and dead. But the case… the technology…

Walsh would rebuild. Make Adam better. Make Adam stronger, more intelligent. Make Adam completely resistant to even this kind of energy blast. Adam would be the ultimate warrior, the ultimate person, one who couldn't feel hurt or pain or loss. One who'd never feel sorrow or remorse or inadequacy.

Perfection.

Professor Walsh stepped out of Lab 314, past a very busy-looking Marianna Forlich, past the break-room where Penelope Hunter was gossiping with Julie Parsoner, and down into the Pit.

There, Francis Angleman was bent over his latest surgery — a gooey demon creature that they'd just captured yesterday. He looked up as he noticed Walsh entering the area.

"Dr. Angleman," said Walsh, with a smile. She leaned over the cadaver. "I've just seen the future. And it's spelled 314."

* * *

Lasky's Nebula, 3847

He'd been flying for bloody ever, now.

And it wasn't as if he'd object all that much, except that he'd run out of smokes a few light years back, and he was now running pretty low on food (and if he didn't get the specially created artificial substitute he was used to, he was going to start showing his age). All of which meant that now he was out in the middle of nowhere, bored as sin, with no one to talk to and not a lot of time left.

(He'd have already been there, by now, if it hadn't been for that ruddy space cop. Cops were always out for his blood, these days. If he didn't have his Shadow Proclamation pass, he'd have died a number of times during this trip.)

But when he saw the IPSA space ship in front of him, he knew that finally — finally — he'd made it.

He pressed a few buttons, and made contact.

The screen popped up mid-air, and he shielded his eyes with his arm. Ruddy fusion lights. Ruddy simulated sunlight. Ruddy high definition.

"Could you bloody well turn the contrast down, please?" he demanded. "Don't know when I'll get around to buying another leather jacket, and I don't want this one scorched."

The woman on the other end of the display, a girl with purple hair, turned down the contrast, and then said, "This is Vivian Renkirst of the IPSA fleet. State your name and business, please."

"Name's Spike, little lady," he said. "And I'm calling for a skinny bloke. Tall, awkward, ruddy long hair, likes to jump about a lot. Calls himself 'the Doctor'. He turned up there?"

Vivian grimaced, then spun around to the others behind her, discussing something quietly.

"Might not have arrived, yet," said Spike. "My calendar's probably off. I was aiming for Earth Date January 11." Which was difficult, considering he hadn't set foot on Earth for nearly a millennium, now.

"I'm… sorry, sir," Vivian said, turning back to the screen. "I'm afraid you just missed him."

Spike stared, for a second, unable to move. "I what?"

"I've been told the Doctor just left," said Vivian. "About an hour or two ago."

Bloody hell! Spike had one thing to do, one date in history that Buffy had asked him, over and over again, to make sure he got to — and he'd gone and bloody missed it! Some great friend he was!

"Yeah, well, if he does show up, again, just tell him Buffy's still alive after 2001," said Spike. "Cause Willow brought her back. History and such. You know, just… if he ever comes back here."

Which Spike knew he wouldn't. Good for you, Spike. You bloody wanker.

On the screen, a woman with black hair leaned down. "Officer June T. Marya, Korjensky Official. Sorry to intrude, but we were just doing a routine scan and… your life-sign readings are… a little odd. Would you mind identifying your species?"

Spike sighed, and fished around in his leather jacket. He brought out his Shadow Proclamation pass, and shoved it against the camera lens.

"There! See? Vampire," said Spike. "Endangered Species. And yeah, I got a soul, and yeah, I'm under the protection of the Shadow Proclamation. So no wooden stakes for Spike, today, got that?"

There was a pause from the other end, as all the women nearby leaned in to read the pass. Then they all frowned.

"Why aren't you sparkly?" they asked, in unison.

Spike dropped the pass back onto the dashboard of his ship. "Right. I don't have time for this. If you'll excuse me, I've got a very overdue appointment with the nearest pan-galactic gargleblaster."

And he shut off the screen, redirecting the space ship to the nearest bar he could find.

He took out the folded note, 1800 years old, that he'd held onto since she'd given him the message. "January 11, 3847. Lasky's Nebula. IPSA."

Her mission for him.

He tucked the note back into his pocket. "Vampire with a soul," he muttered. "But no sense of time."


End file.
